Main research question : How can you make your trips greener?
Transport Companies
To get information we contacted several companies. TCA (Taxi Central Amsterdam), GVB (municipal transport company) and NS (Dutch railways) we communicated by phone. The TCA, GVB and the NS are popular transport companies in Amsterdam. We also talked to Schiphol via WhatsApp, during the conversation we got a link to the Schiphol website that deals with sustainability and the environment. Schiphol is the airport of Amsterdam and is the 3rd largest airport in Europe. The Schiphol website contains a lot of information about what the company itself does, for the environment and how the airline companies deal with this. Schiphol itself thinks this topic is very important and also pays a lot of attention to it. In the climate agreement in Paris it was agreed to reduce CO2 emissions. The climate agreement of Paris is part of the Climate Convention, which is a climate policy to ensure that global warming is curbed. This agreement was concluded on the 12th of December 2015. No airline in the Netherlands flies with kerosene. KLM(Dutch Royal Airline) has been flying with recycled substances for a few years, this is more environment friendly . A plan has been made in the Netherlands for a smart and better airline; '' Aviation Netherlands Action Plan ''. This plan must ensure that CO2 emissions will be reduced by 50% by 2050 compared to 2005. We have sent the TCA, GVB and NS an e-mail with the questions we wanted to ask. These are the questions we came up with:
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* Transport of the family members.
* Means of transport of students and teachers to go to school.
-The teachers and the students usually go by bus, metro, bike or car. Some students also come walking. Walking is environmentally friendly, going by bike and metro is also environmentally friendly. Going by bus and car is not as environmentally friendly as the other means of transport, because with the bus and car you use gasoline. Going by bike, bus, metro or car is safe, but with the car you are most likely to have accidents. There are no alternatives for these kind of transport. In the Netherlands the only means of transport are bus, metro, train, tram, car, bike or just walking.
* Public transport in your area.
- We have calculated a trip from our school to the Central Station of Amsterdam. You can travel in different ways to the Central station, by subway, bus, tram or walking, so many ways!
This is the Subway Line of Amsterdam. ‘’Reigersbos’’ (the green line, in the bottom right) is the place where our school is. There are many ways to go to Central Station. This is one of the ways. You can go from ‘’Reigersbos‘’ to ‘’Van der Madeweg’’, then you step over and take the Subway that goes to Central Station. This journey takes about 23 minutes. In the Netherlands you do not have to worry about traveling with public transport. You have many different types of transportation and it is not expensive at all. Almost in every big city you see a bus or a metro station, so you can travel anywhere. Public transport is very comfortable and very convenient. a life without these means of transport is almost impossible
* For one week try to make your trips as green as possible. Use the diary (see worksheet).
* Ask your parents opinion on realistic ways to reduce the use of private cars.
(Ama's father)
-What do you think of online shopping?
I think it's very handy, cause then I don't have to go to the shop.
-Do you often shop online?
Not really.
-Is it possible for you to work from home?
No, it isn't. Because for my kind of work I can't work from home
-Do you work daily?
Yes, I work everyday from Monday to Friday
-Do you think you could take public transport more often?
It's maybe possible.
Research methods
* Investigation of the transport of the family in one week (filling in diary). Each of the group members.
(Ama's father)
-How often do you use a private car?
I use it everyday to go to work and I drive around picking up family members and bringing them where they have to be.
-Why do you use a private car?
Because it's more efficiënt and faster.
-Do you try to reduce the use of private cars?
Not really.
-How can you reduce using a private car?
I think not to go everywhere with it everyday and to walk more.
(Amisha's grandfather)
-How often do you use a private car?
Everyday.
-Why do you use a private car?
To pick up my grandchildren from school and to bring them back home.
-Did you try to reduce the use of a private car?
Nope.
-How can you reduce the use of a private car?
Let my grandchildren take public transport sometimes.
Comparison with the site from Vibgyor High
The My green trips team from Vibgyor High had a totally different kind of introduction, they made a video while we wrote our introduction. Their page looks totally different from ours and in our view it looks like we did more work. They mostly have tips on how to travel greener while we did research about how the people around us travel.
Conclusion
It’s a fact that you CAN make your trips greener, but how?
You can walk or cycle instead of taking the car or the public transport. If you want to travel by plane, go straight to your end location, it will be more environmentally friendly. If you travel a lot by car, buy an electric one, this is also better for the environment. A tip for traveling : check the airlines, there are many airlines who care about the evironment, Easy Jet is one of them , so travel with them. If you’re lazy or don’t want to buy an electric car you also can search for environmentally friendly cars. Suzuki Celerio and Hyundai are one of them.
You can walk or cycle instead of taking the car or the public transport. If you want to travel by plane, go straight to your end location, it will be more environmentally friendly. If you travel a lot by car, buy an electric one, this is also better for the environment. A tip for traveling : check the airlines, there are many airlines who care about the evironment, Easy Jet is one of them , so travel with them. If you’re lazy or don’t want to buy an electric car you also can search for environmentally friendly cars. Suzuki Celerio and Hyundai are one of them.
Group Reflection
Almost everything went well actually. The only thing that didn't went as well, were the interviews with companies. What we would do differently is not procrastinate as much as we did and have a little bit more communication with Vibgyor High. We made a survey for teachers and students, so that they could tell us how they travel to school and how much kilometers it is. We tried to call different kind of transport companies, to ask them a couple of questionss, but that didn't work out. We gave everyone of our group a task to do for this project. We also made a groupchat on WhatsApp with our group members. Some of our group members didn't do as much work as the other group members.
Awareness activity
We had to think of a way to promote green transport. We decided to make a poster about all sorts of ways how you can travel more greener to keep the environment well. Here is the end result!
Self Evaluation
my_green_trips_self_evaluation.doc | |
File Size: | 107 kb |
File Type: | doc |