Sitting in the Charlotte NC National Airport ,it is quite amusing the characters that pass by. From the urban soccer mom to the coked out junkie, if you look hard enough, you’ll find what your looking for. But the one thing that brings all of these people together is travel.

In this fast paced world it is uncommon to find someone who has never flown somewhere. When I was younger most of my friends never left the state, let alone fly anywhere. But with gas prices rising, the horrid state of our economy, and fear of pollution it seems the jet setter trend is starting to slow down.

It is the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. Where is everyone? I flew through security, I actually had an empty seat next to me on the flight here, and the atmosphere is suprisingly low key.

The economy and environmental relief efforts are the two main reasons for this. Take a look at this: 

Intercity bus service in the US jumped nearly 10 percent in the last year. In fact, the rate of growth was the highest in more than 40 years. Rising fuel prices played a role. But so did the revival of downtown districts and a growing acceptance of bus travel among younger travelers. Because of them, the atmosphere was spared roughly 36,000 tons of CO2 emissions

Thank you bus riders.

Meanwhile air travel in the same period declined 8 percent. Travel by private vehicle was down 3.3 percent. Train ridership increased about 3.3 percent.

Thank you train riders.

Much of the growth was driven by two companies, Megabus and Boltbus, a joint venture of the Greyhound and Peter Pan bus companies. Both started kerbside pick-up service in northeastern states in spring 2007. The two companies offer high-frequency service between major US cities and wireless Internet service on board.

 Thanks to the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University in Chicago for the new study.

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent, lecturer, and 2008 winner of the PEN USA Literary Award, the Kiriyama Prize and the John Burroughs Medal.

Keep it up young people and train riders! We are in the process of taking the idea of the conventional Jet Setter and transforming it to benefit the world around. Go us! We do know how to make a difference!