As countries develop, more and more people buy and use their own cars. Do the advantages of this trend for individuals outweigh the disadvantages for the environment?

As our society becomes increasingly wealthy, and the cost of private

car

ownership

decreases, more people are opting to forego public transit in favour of private vehicles. While there are benefits to owning and using one's personal

car

, there are significant environmental impacts to consider. The positives and negatives of increasing personal vehicle

ownership

are presented below, along with a discussion of the net impact of

this

trend. The main, and perhaps only, advantage stemming from people owning and operating their own vehicles is increased

freedom

of mobility. Once someone owns a

car

, they are no longer beholden to the availability and scheduling of public transport. As long as there is road access to your destination of choice, you can go there if.

This

freedom

is an incredible and difficult to quantify

benefit

Suggestion

benefits

, especially for those who enjoy and value travel to destinations underserved by mass transit. While

freedom

of movement, enabled by personal vehicle use, can be truly life changing for many individuals, it comes at a very high environmental cost. The main and most discussed downside of choosing personal transit over public is the sharp increase in carbon emissions. The significantly higher fuel burn of a personal vehicle over shared public transport, per capita, leads to a higher total carbon dioxide emissions within a population.

For example

, a bus can hold approximately ten times the amount of people as a regular passenger

car

,

however

the engine is only two to three times as large.

This

efficiency difference becomes

further

apparent when one considers the frequency of single occupant passenger vehicles on the road.

In addition

to increased greenhouse gas emissions, there is a direct environmental impact stemming from the destruction of natural areas where oil is extracted and processed. One

particularly

Suggestion

particular

egregious example is the Oilsands region in northern Calgary, where once pristine tundra has been converted into lifeless pits brimming with bitumen extraction run-off. Comparing both the benefits and issues of personal auto

ownership

, it is clear that the downsides are far greater. While it is difficult to put a price on personal

freedom

, is it really greater than the wholesale destruction of our earth's atmosphere, climate, natural environments, and even human health? The personal automobile is seen as a sign of personal achievement in our society, and our cities and lives are very much designed around access to and use of personal vehicles. Despite the overwhelming environmental and human health impact, when one combines the relative affordability of

car

ownership

with the shortcomings of our public transport systems, private vehicles will likely remain a fixture of our society for quite some time.