The article participated in the 3rd edition of the “Piórem Logistyka” Competition.
II. Examples of the adverse impact of transport on the natural environment and the possibilities of applying alternative solutions
According to the World Health Organization (United Nations, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, 17 January 2001 ECE/AC.21/2001/1,EUR/00/5026094/1, Overview of Instruments Relevant to Transport, Environment and health and Recommendations for Further Steps), noise causes not only sleep problems but also negatively affects our mental health and contributes to a decline in intelligence levels. Approximately 30% of the population in European Union countries is exposed to noise levels above 55 dB, and exceeding this threshold leads to health problems. Conducted studies indicate its indirect impact on the increase in the incidence of heart disease and hypertension.
Although road accidents remain one of the most significant external costs (their financial dimension is currently estimated at approximately 156 billion EUR per year), studies in individual countries clearly show that the number of victims of car exhaust poisoning significantly exceeds the number of accident victims. The Italian National Environmental Protection Agency and the WHO in Italy conducted special studies, during which it turned out that car exhaust fumes are an indirect cause of at least 4.7% of all deaths of people over 30 years of age and about 30% of respiratory diseases in children under 15 years of age. The conclusions from studies conducted at the University of Basel are also pessimistic. They clearly show that every year, car exhaust fumes kill approximately 20,000 people in France, Switzerland, and Austria. This is significantly more than the losses caused by road accidents (Dziennik Polski XI 2000).
In Poland, over 30% of residents live in a zone above 70 decibels. The report of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate states that, despite this, Polish cities generally do not have acoustic climate maps because noise is not treated as a problem in our country. We continue to measure pollution characteristic of the period when heavy industry was the main “polluter.” And although its negative impact is currently much smaller, the number of cases of asthma and other environment-dependent diseases is not decreasing, but on the contrary – it is growing rapidly [6].
Another adverse factor is the amount of land required to transport a specific flow of cargo by road transport, which is over three times greater than when using rail transport for this purpose. Should we, therefore, abandon this type of transport? That is, of course, impossible. Instead, we should strive to reduce its negative effects through the wider use of multi-modal transport systems. Such an approach is promoted by the European Union in the field of transport in the transport policy created by the European Commission. In this regard, a very important European Union document concerning transport policy is the White Paper (European Transport Policy 2010: time to decide), which has been divided into the following thematic parts (2):
- part I. Shifting the balance between modes of transport,
- part II. Eliminating bottlenecks,
- part III. Placing users at the heart of transport policy,
- part IV. Managing the globalization of transport.