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Transportation

In Focus

Transportation

Harvard experts are exploring planes, trains, and automobiles in their quest to innovate green travel, improve public transportation, and discover the future of getting from place to place.

Paving the way

Welcome to Electric Avenue

As electric vehicles (EVs) have become more common, Harvard students and researchers have been monitoring their progress and exploring how they can help in the fight against climate change.

A person plugs an electric vehicle charger into the charging port
  • Harvard Law School

What the US is getting right—and wrong—about the move to electric vehicles

What the US is getting right—and wrong—about the move to electric vehicles
  • Harvard Kennedy School

Banning gas-powered cars

California regulators passed rules banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a victory in the fight against climate change.

Banning gas-powered cars
  • Harvard College

Can buying an EV actually increase your carbon footprint?

EVs are dirtier to build but cleaner to drive, and research shows they must meet certain mileage thresholds before environmental advantages are realized.

Can buying an EV actually increase your carbon footprint?
  • Harvard Transportation Services

On the road to a fossil fuel-free future

In 2021, Harvard purchased four 100% electric buses and electric infrastructure as part of efforts to achieve fossil fuel-neutrality by 2026.

On the road to a fossil fuel-free future
  • Harvard School of Engineering

The sky's no longer the limit

Harvard alum Kyle Clark created a Vermont-based electric aerospace company that is innovating air travel and combating climate change.

The sky's no longer the limit

Catch a ride

Public transportation services have evolved over time, with more options than ever before. The Harvard community is examining the benefits, the challenges, and the opportunities with public transportation.

Trains ????

In light of the recent history of MBTA line stoppages derailing commuter schedules, Harvard experts discuss solutions for problems in the long-term.

Buses ????

Studies have shown cognitive benefits among those who use public bus transportation, in addition to having better lives socially and physically.

Transit Fares ????️

With employees returning to the office, debates have sparked about offering free public transportation and its potential to bring in more commuters.

Highways and byways

Highways and railways connect communities across the globe. Experts explore ways to improve these crucial elements of our infrastructure, as well as how they impact us.

Considering the commute

Harvard researchers are exploring commuting’s effect on pollution, wellbeing, and municipal budgets to better understand how we can improve these twice daily trips.


Tomorrow’s transportation

Harvard’s Data Science Summer Program invited students from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to learn how to teach toy cars to recognize objects and eventually drive themselves.

Learn more about the next generation of transportation scientists

Harvard alum and Business School assistant professor Julian De Freitas illuminates that autonomous cars require more than technology—they require ethical considerations and, most importantly, common sense.

A Harvard Design School project aimed to reimagine air travel for the future, recapturing some of its early promise (and even glamour) by assessing and addressing various pressure points resulting from the pandemic as well as more long-term challenges.

Jinyan Zang, a Harvard alum-turned-entrepreneur, has created a data platform that seeks to transform trucking logistics by connecting more empty return trips with cargo.