Duy Tran

It is very important that people learn about more sustainable forms of transportation and cities invest in creating infrastructure that supports the utilization of public transit, walking, or biking versus just making roads that prioritize the use of vehicles.

Cost and ease of access are probably the greatest determining factors for choice of transportation. If cleaner and more sustainable forms of transportation are not present, people will not adopt them. Governments need to adopt and implement more rail and public transit systems and educate the public about them so more people can use these forms of transportation.

Cost savings is another benefit to switching to electric vehicles. The more simple machinery compared to internal combustion vehicles can reduce maintenance costs. One drawback will be the durability of batteries, an internal combustion vehicle can last decades, batteries degrade much faster so more research should be done to improve batteries.

New York City is exploring the possibility of utilizing congestion pricing to reduce the amount of vehicular traffic in the city. By making it more expensive to drive in cities, it incentivizes the use of alternative forms of transportation. Other cities around the world already do this such as London, Helsinki, and Singapore. They have recorded a reduction in pollution and traffic as a result. The US needs to follow the precedent set by these cities to create more sustainable and equitable cities, we have fallen behind and have become too reliant on the personal automobile to the detriment of the environment and our health. We need to invest in the infrastructure for more accessible, bike friendly and transit friendly cities.

I think in the US we are bombarded with advertisement for burgers and meaty foods. There is also an idea that is taught that eating a lot of meat makes one tougher or more manly. The cultural desire to conform to this image may be a reason why Americans love meat so much. Meat is also more accessible and cheaper in the US which lends itself to being a popular food choice.

These dates help to determine when you should eat something and when you should toss them. Food waste is a major issue and understanding what these labels mean can reduce what food we throw out. The labels themselves can be confusing but this article from Forbes does a good job of explaining the differences: https://www.forbes.com/sites/eustaciahuen/2017/06/30/foodlabels/#5038aa1e5936.