The world is constantly moving and
we tend to move faster now than we have always done. Our lives tend to depend on our ability to
transport from one part of the world to the other as quickly and efficient as
we can. How fast, efficient and
economical our mode of transportation is, clearly have direct impact on the way
we live, feed and communicate.
The 20th century ushered in a
giant leap in the world’s automotive technology, making it more convenient,
safer and cheaper to transport. However these
new modes of transportations have their problems, ranging from political,
economical and environmental. The greatest of this problem is the petroleum fuel
used to power the vehicles. Premium
Motor Spirit (PMS) is now very expensive and also nearing its extinction.
On the 1st of January 2011,
President Jonathan of Nigeria totally removed the petroleum subsidy, which is about
the only way, so far that the Government of Nigeria has shown any support for
the ordinary citizens of Nigeria to get cheaper PMS. This act has generated many evaluations, some
in support and many more against the subsidy removal. Irrespective of everyone’s opinion of the
subsidy removal, it is important that we all started making up our minds about
how we transport ourselves around and try alternative modes of transportation
that will cut down on our over-dependence on petroleum products as our means of
transportation.
As we all know that majority of the
cars in Nigeria and Africa of today are totally dependent on Petroleum fuels. We are doing the planet no good if we continue
to use the car at the current rate. We
all need to start looking at alternative modes of transportation, which is not overly
reliant on Petroleum as we presently do.
We need to cut down on the use of
petroleum based cars as our only means of transportation.
We need to use more buses, trains
and start leaving our cars at home.
Let us start car sharing to work.
We need to use our bicycles more
now.
Let’s go back to the Omolankes,
Camels, Donkeys and Horses, especially in our rural communities.
Our companies and the governments
need to introduce parking quotas and restrictions in our business and
commercial areas, so as to encourage car sharing.
Let’s walk more now when we can, it’s
the best form of transportation and also very healthy.
The cost of petroleum in the
world over has gone up astronomically and until we started embracing ways of cutting
down on our dependence on Petroleum fuels, we may not start to enjoy our
already congested transportation lifestyles.
The united nation has announced that
the world’s population has reached 7 Billion people at the tail end of 2011 and
expects it to eventually stabilize at around 10 billion people. If the numbers do reach 10 billion people and
the world’s economy keeps improving to the point that everyone owns cars, there
would be around 6 billion cars or about 8 billion motor vehicles in the
world. If everyone drove cars like the Americans
that would drain the entire Middle East Oil supplies in just about 5
years.
New technological trends are
emerging on a daily basis to cut down on the problems. The world is gradually moving away from Petroleum
based mode of transportation and gradually embracing electric based cars, hybrid
cars, sky tram, super bus, Autoway, superconducting MAGnetic LEVitation (MAGLEV)
mode of transports and many more that are still emerging. These modes of transportation also tend to
reduce the production of green house gases partly caused by petroleum motor
fuel gas emissions.
It is estimated that there will
be over 1.1 Billion motor vehicles in the world by 2020. If all these vehicles
are lined up and drove past you at the rate of one vehicle per second, it will
take £35 years for 1.1 billion vehicles to drive by. If they line up
bumper-to-bumper (Acknowledging Wande Coal) for the drive-by, the line would
extend 130 times around the world. That
is how many vehicles we’ll have to supply with motor fuel by 2020 and that is
how much atmospheric pollutant we will be having by the same year
Until we started to embrace alternative
mode of transportations, not dependent on petroleum fuel, we may not achieve our
drive to lead a cheaper and sustainable life we all dream of. Let’s bring out the bicycles, omolankes, camels
and horses; this may just be the way forward.
As
written by: Abiola Olaifa (abiolla@gmail.com, www.abiolla.com
)
