How to Green Your Public Transportation
by Team Treehugger, Worldwide on 10.19.06
What’s the Big Deal?
Public Transportation, while maybe not as enjoyable as commuting in your own personal vehicle, does ease congestion, reduce emissions, and give you plenty of quality time to people watch, as well as get to know your “neighbours.” In addition, public transportation allows you to relax, read or nap during that commute instead of fighting and stressing and feeling the road rage. So, what do we mean by public transportation? Well, for this article we are focusing on buses, trains, planes and ferries/boats, whether used for the daily commute or just to get around. For those of you interested in leaving that car at home, these tips discuss the merits of public transportation as well as offer suggestions for how to expand and improve public transportation in your community.Guide Navigation
1. A (hu)man with a Plan.
If you’re not sure you can do the public transportation thing, start small with one a goal of taking public transportation at least one day a week until you figure out the system. Before you know it, you’ll be making friends and riding along with everyone else.
2. Come Fly With Me.
Try to reduce the number of plane trips you take and try not to use a plane for any trips under 1000km. Plane trips are way more environmentally destructive than automobile trips.
3. Get On the Bus.
Write to your city representatives to request that your community upgrade their diesel buses to fleets of LNG or biodiesel buses. This will reduce the CO2 emissions generated, reduce dependence on imported oil dependency, and in the case of biodiesel engines actually run cleaner and more efficient than petrochemical diesel.
4. Try the bus or train for longer trips.
Buses, trains, light rail and ferries generally have dedicated travel paths that are quicker than sitting alone in your car, which can cut down travel times.
5. Walk to school.
Most children live close enough to walk school, but few do. Instead of driving your children the few blocks, walk with them or allow them to take the school bus.
6. Catch a taxi.
Really these are a form of public transport because you don’t own them, and when you don’t need the service they are made available for others to use. Look out for hybrid or pedi-cab taxis for an even greener option.
7. Telecommute.
Don’t drive to the office, or fly to that conference, if you can arrange to complete your work/presentation electronically, or via video conferencing. Video conferencing can reduce 99% of the energy used for a trans-continental flight.
8. Buy fare saver tickets.
Return, weekly/monthly, or off-peak bus/train tickets are often significantly cheaper than single ride tickets, which will encourage you to use said bus/train more often.
9. Plan your trip.
Obtain timetable and route-maps for your journey to know what to expect in advance. Many municipal public transport systems now have free online databases than will take your staring point and destination and calculate the fastest times and best route for your trip. This can take the uncertainty out of public transport travel.
10. Be a Change Agent.
If you don’t use public transport in your local area because the service doesn’t work for you, for whatever reason, then get it changed. Write letters to your city newspaper, comment on their online stories that address urban travel, join a public transport advocacy group, and meet with your local government representative. Things won’t change, until you inform people you want them to.
1. Buy Carbon Offsets for your trips.
There are several new groups out there offering carbon offsets to cover a variety of your carbon concerns. One example is a British Airways partnership with Climate Care to offset passenger emissions for air travel.
2. Don’t own a car.
Plan your life so you live near where you work, or on a public transportation route, and also where you can get too all needed services without the use of an automobile.
3. Get Loud.
While public transportation is a good idea, some buses are not clean. If you live in an area with bad transportation, make your voice heard with the people that make decisions and pay the bills, that you want a clean fuel or hybrid bus. Not only is the exhaust from that old bus a nuisance, its also bad for your public health. Tell that dirty bus to hit the road.
1. 14: million Americans that take public transportation daily.
2. 40: percentage of US reliance on foreign oil would decrease if one in ten Americans used public transportation daily.
3. 79: the number of times safer that riding a bus is over riding in your own automobile.
4. 855: the millions of gallons saved (equal to 45 million barrels of oil) from people taking public transportation each year.
This is roughly the energy needed to power ¼ of all American homes annually.
5. 6,000: the difference in pounds of global warming pollution that a diesel school bus emits over a natural gas school bus.
6. If one in five Americans used public transportation daily, the carbon monoxide emissions saved would be greater than the combined emissions from all chemical manufacturing and metal processing industries.
7. While a full airplane and car emit roughly the same CO2 per person/km, the plane goes a much further distance, thus a greater impact. (The same does not hold true when comparing a SUV/truck with plane travel).
8. Treehugger Instant Survey: Your Commute
9. Treehugger Instant Survey: Airplane Travel
Treehugger.com has been a leader in promoting the green lifestyle and has numerous resources on how others have done just that. For more information, you can begin by checking out the Transportation, Bicycle or Eco-travel sections on Treehugger.com. Below is a collection of transportation related articles.
1. Treehugger recently asked readers to chime in on whether and how they have reduced their dependence on cars. Some of the strategies are pretty creative while others are really informed critiques on plans devoted to improve travel which are doing anything but.
2. Taxis are a smaller form of public transportation, and even they are getting in on the hybrid act.
3. Alternative fuel buses are popping up all over the world, including biodiesel buses in Toronto, diesel hybrid buses in London, hydrogen buses at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Games in Berlin, and Volvo plans to begin producing hybrid trucks and buses.
4. Train travel is better than flying, well, from an emissions standpoint it is and it’s a lot more peaceful. Japan has even begun converting its diesel-electric trains to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells. That’s the spirit.
5. Public Transportation Maps: Google is now offering public transportation maps for cities, beginning with Portland, OR and with more cities to follow.
6. Ferries: San Francisco may soon have a new attraction – 600-passenger hybrid-electric Solar Sailors to ferry people back and forth to Alcatraz. These ships come complete with solar wings, which cut fuel needs in half. The other plan is to use these aquatankers ship water to drought-plagued areas of Australia. While Staten Island ferries are being retrofitted to reduce particulate and Nox emissions.
In addition to Treehugger.com, other organizations have put together resources that may be helpful as you continue to green your life.
1. For more information on public transportation options and ballot initiatives in your community, see this interactive map provided by Center for Transportation Excellence.
2. Homepage of the American Public Transit Association – an organization.
3. Google Curitiba, Brazil for a wealth of information on a city that is a leader in putting public transportation above private transportation. Their rapid bus transit system has allowed fast, efficient public transportation to dominate.
4. George Monbiot article, “Flying is Dying.” – flying is really destructive on the planet, namely it is highly destructive when it comes to the amount of emissions it produces, thus leading to global warming.
5. ChooseClimate.org allows you to calculate your CO2 emissions for any flight around the world.
6. Climate Action Network Europe provides a comparison of several modes of public transportation and how widely used they are among European countries.
7. Climate Care is partnering with British Airways to cover carbon emissions from air travel.
1. Where to Get This Stuff
Start Global Cooling (Clif Bar)
I live in NYC and pretty much use the subway every day. I like the fact that I am saving energy and it is better for the environment. Yet there are plenty of days when I long to have a car... Why?
1. I always get a seat.
2. The person next to me isn't so fat they are spilling over into my seat.
3. I am not aggressively panhandled
4. My car would be about a million times cleaner.
5. My car would also be a million times quieter without some near-deaf kid blasting his iPod so loud you can hear it across the station.
Public transit has never been designed to truly be pleasant in any sense. I still use it, but it definitely is trying in its own way.
"Public transit has never been designed to truly be pleasant in any sense. I still use it, but it definitely is trying in its own way."
Well, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's better in parts of Europe and Asia. It depends on how much of a priority it is for society.
If we spend only a portion of the money we spend on car infrastructures (roads, oil/military subsidies, lost productivity due to traffic, smog, etc), I bet that public transit would be very clean, roomy and pleasant.
How about changing that first sentence to "Most people admit that having to drive a car sucks. But how many people know that taking public transit can be enjoyable?" And then go on to promote "ways to make public transit even more enjoyable", and to introduce it to those who "may not have considered it yet" (as opposed to saying "leave the car at home", which psychologically reinforces the idea of owning a car as being normal - which is true, but not the idea I think you are looking to convey here).
Know what I mean? It's all about framing...
P.S. This is my third try posting this comment. What's up with TypeKey? It says I'm signed in up there, but then my post is entered anonymously.
"the public transportation thing"
Not sure what that means.
Already bad framing. I should have edited this before publishing but that's what happens when you're face down in the computer all day.
#1 - in 95% of the United Stats (less so elsewhere) you would actually starve to death if you lost your car. This is a major problem that goes way beyond environmental impact. It's a national security issue. It's an economic security issue. So let's make sure people understand this goes way beyond the environment - that's what will get people to try it.
#2 The way residential areas are now built, it's almost impossible to serve them with public transit in any meaningful way without spending an unbelievable fortune, so it's silly to try and get people to use transit in most suburban/exurban areas - they probably would have to *drive* just to get to the bus stop then transfer 2 times to get anywhere. In most of the US this makes it sadly unrealistic no matter how idealistic you are. But it's not the fault of transit, it's the fault of developers and planners who allowed things to be built with only the car in mind. That is where the change needs to be made, people's habits will follow.
#3 - Forget this "sacrifice/martyr stuff". Taking public transit should *not* be about sacrifice. I don't own a car because I simply don't need to. I live in a place (San Francisco) where owning a car is more trouble than it's worth and a couple times a month I rent or borrow one to do a few errands or get out of town - way cheaper than owning one. There are incredibly high quality transit systems in some areas that we should hold as minimum standards, we should demand that transit be better inplaces where it's practical and demand it loudly - that's the only way it's going to be popular. San Francsico get's a solid C+ rating as far as i'm concerned and that's good for the US, but horrible for a city which ought to be better.
#4 - In cities, like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and believe it or not - Los Angeles (which is far more transit friendly, in potential, than most of the US) - these are the places to talk to people about getting on the bus/train. Why cars are even allowed in Manhattan is beyond me.
Just don't expect a great deal of change in Phoenix - that will take 50 years. But dense cities with a history of pre-car design have immense potential to be lovely places to get around without a car, with no sacrifice to be made.
Finally, to commenter 1. You live in NYC and you want a car? You're crazy.
Oh, and PS - don't forget the bike lanes.
While a full airplane and car emit roughly the same CO2 per person/km, the plane goes a much further distance, thus a greater impact.
BTU per passenger-mile, US
Cars... 3,549
Transit buses... 4,160
"BTU per passenger-mile, US
Cars... 3,549
Transit buses... 4,160"
Do you have the methodology for this? I have a hard time believing that a diesel bus carrying 40-60 people is less efficient per passenger than the average gasoline car/SUV carrying 1.2 (or whatever) people.
Is it possible that they did the math with a car carrying 5-6 people or something unrealistic like that?
http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb25/Edition25_Chapter02.pdf
This will also surprise you.
Cost per passenger-mile, US
Cars... 33.2 cents
Transit buses... 92.5 cents
Fares cover 23% of transit bus costs.
Not sure why this didn't get posted yet.
The source for the statistic is here:
http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb25/Edition25_Chapter02.pdf
(see Table 2.10)
The original data comes from the American Public Transit Association's "Public Transportation Factbook".
http://www.apta.com/research/stats/factbook/documents/2006factbook.pdf
Also, I made a comment that people also need to be aware that bus transit has a total per passenger-mile cost of 92.5 cents, of which fares contribute 23%. (See Table 55 at that APTA link.)
By contrast, the average new car being used for 15,000 miles per year has an average per passenger cost of 33.2 cents. (Avg load factor of 1.57 and average per mile cost of 52.2 cents according to AAA's "Your Driving Costs".)
http://www.aaaexchange.com/Assets/Files/2006328123200.YourDrivingCosts2006.pdf
Public transit has many merits, but we also need to be honest about its realities.
Sorry, but framing the issue differently doesn't change the fact that taking the NYC subway pretty much sucks. It is convenient and cheap, but that is its only advantage.
Although I am sure this anathema to many people, I would be willing to pay more for a car with guaranteed seats and quietness. Sure it is an invitation to class warfare, but it also would provide funds to the transit system and let people who can afford cars in NYC justify public transit.
And lets not forget about rail and train systems. The orginal grids of many cities, such as my home in Denver originally had cable cars and rail systems running all across them. Then millions were spent to rip that system out for cars, cars, and more cars.
Anyone who has ever been to Europe knows how great a train system can be. Denver is now doing a great new Fast Tracks program, and I am hoping people will talk next about going to the mountains. You can help by throwing in some comments at www.theurbanbrain.com with the blog about Mountain Train. Click on the Mike link below to jump right to the blog item and give me some support!! :)
I can vouch for public transport being more costly than owning a car in a lot of places (though, because of crazy parking prices, not in New York City). My boyfriend commutes to White Plains from Tuckahoe by car (with a co-worker) because the Metro North + bus ticket to his workplace was costing more per year than buying a used car.
A lot of this is probably because of the market price for oil not reflecting its costs, but people should be aware that in most places (not New York City), public transport is a more expensive option than having your own car.
It's very unfortunate.