Abstract
Very few engineering and business/management education programs emphasize the importance of sustainable public transportation in urban environments, even though agencies and practitioners recognize it. Many undergraduate and graduate students have little training on how a sustainable public transport system is planned, designed, and operationalized, which is critical for a better understanding of sustainability and equity in public transportation. Content and instructional materials in sustainable public transportation education are still not readily available for practitioners. Therefore, this chapter aims to examine the public content and instructional materials on the websites of various universities in North America and Europe and to understand their commitment to education in sustainable public transportation, specifically to “sustainable public transportation” courses offered in the programs. It addresses how sustainability and equity in public transportation are integrated with textual and visual materials used in engineering and business/management education programs.
TopBackground
Sustainability is the use of resources by considering the well-being of people and protecting the environment (UNCED, 1992). Sustainability is also described as an attempt to satisfy the needs of the future generation (Rauch, 2002). In our current world, the role of education is not only to adapt people to a changing world but also to satisfy their needs and improve their perspectives to protect the environment (UNCED, 1992). In other words, transforming education to have a more sustainable world is an attempt of creating an ecologically, economically, and socially safe system (Greene & Wegener, 1997). According to the Transportation Research Board, “sustainability is not about threat analysis; sustainability is about systems analysis. Specifically, it is about how environmental, economic, and social systems interact to their mutual advantage or disadvantage at various space-based scales of operation.” (Toutanji, Anderson, & Leonard, 2013, p. 7). Rauch (2002) explains the concept of sustainability in three fundamental components: (i) ecological, (ii) economic, and (iii) social sustainability, all of which denote global preservation and development.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ecological Sustainability: Long-term perspectives and developments to maintain the natural balance and survival of the ecosystem.
Social Sustainability: Internal and external unity and solidarity of people (and/or cultures) in a global environment.
Public Transportation: A system of vehicles that operates at regular times on fixed routes for getting people from one place to another.
Sustainable Transportation System: A system promoting the current transport and mobility needs of communities by addressing ecologic, economic, and social concerns.
Sustainability: The use of resources by considering the well-being of people and protecting the environment.
Economic Sustainability: The optimal use, safeguarding, and sustaining of resources to preserve the life quality of individuals over the long term.
Urban Transportation: A movement of people within urban areas using group travel technologies (mass transportation) such as buses, trains, and streetcars.