Read the article and answer the questions below.
Public transportation: fast track to fewer emissions and energy independence.
If you want to help reduce global warming, let alone air pollution, one of the best things you can do is to get out of your car. Walk or ride a bicycle for short trips, or take public transportation for longer ones. Either way, you will significantly reduce the amount of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions you generate each day. Added Benefits of Public Transportation Consider these other benefits of public transportation: • Energy independence—According to Treehugger.com, if just one in 10 Americans used public transportation daily, U.S. reliance on foreign oil would decrease 40 percent. • Safety—Riding a bus is 79 times safer than riding in an automobile, and riding a train or subway is even safer. • Health—Studies have shown that people who use public transportation regularly tend to be healthier than people who don’t, because of the exercise they get walking to and from bus stops, subway stations and their homes and offices. • Cost savings—According to an APTA study, families that use public transportation can reduce their household expenses by $6,200 annually, more than the average U.S. household spends on food every year. Trains, Buses and Automobiles Train systems are the most efficient in many ways, typically emitting less carbon and using less fuel per passenger than buses, but they are often more expensive to implement. Also, the traditional advantages of trains can be mitigated to a large extent by using hybrids or buses that run on natural gas. Another promising alternative is bus rapid transit (BRT), which runs extra-long buses in dedicated lanes. If you live in an area with good public transportation, do something good for the planet today. Park your car, and take the subway or the bus. If you don’t, then talk to your local and federal elected officials about the benefits of public transportation and how it may help solve some of the problems they’re wrestling with right now.
Choose true or false:
1. Walking and cycling or using public transportation slightly reduces the amount of pollution and greenhouse gas emission.
True
False
2. Using public transportation once in a while increases the overall health of the person.
True
False
3. BRT is bus rapid transportation.
False
True
