Being from the United States, it’s no secret my country is lacking in public transportation infrastructure due to a prioritization of car-based infrastructure. Almost all cities across all states are buried in a mess of dense highways comparable to a plate of spaghetti. Not only is this poor urban design, but it forces car dependency, which directly contributes to CO2 output.
During my academic journey, I’ve had the opportunity to study abroad in Europe on multiple occasions, and what I discovered there was incredible: sophisticated public transportation networks built around buses, light rails, streetcars, regional trains, and high-speed rail. This infrastructure facilitates the movement of citizens while relieving them of car dependency. Much of this rail network runs on a catenary system of overhead electric wires, giving public transportation a largely electric foundation and pointing toward carbon neutrality.
I made a point of reflecting these values in how I traveled during my placement. Rather than renting a car, I relied on local buses, trams, and metro systems to get around day to day, and I used regional and high-speed rail instead of flying between cities. Beyond reducing my own carbon footprint, this let me experience firsthand how seamless and accessible sustainable transportation can be when a city is designed around it rather than around the automobile. These choices directly support UN SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), and they reinforced why I want to spend my career working on solutions like this.
After seeing the vast differences in sustainability, public transportation, and urbanism, I decided I wanted to shift my career goals toward influencing sustainable travel. In looking into net-zero emissions efforts, I started researching hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and their potential advantages over battery electric vehicles. Producing electric vehicle batteries involves mining minerals like nickel, lithium, and cobalt, which can have destructive environmental effects. Using the chemical reactions in a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity reduces the need for that mineral mining while also offering superior driving range thanks to hydrogen’s high energy density.
Over the remainder of my undergraduate career, I plan to design a CAD mockup of a hydrogen-powered streetcar — one that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell instead of relying on an electric catenary system. This would lower the infrastructure costs of installing streetcars in major cities and give citizens more public transportation options beyond personal vehicles, advancing SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) alongside SDG 11 and 13.
My goal is for public transportation to become a baseline expectation in modern society, not an afterthought. Clean, accessible transit isn’t just good for the environment — it’s good for people, giving them the freedom to move through their cities without the financial burden of car ownership. That belief is what drove my choices abroad, and it’s what will continue to drive my work in sustainable transportation going forward.
