Implications of Driving Less

16 March 2008 - 11:00am

A new report from the American Public Transportation Association hypothesizes that people who live in places shaped by transit tend to drive less thereby reducing their overall petroleum use and their carbon footprint.

"This study found a significant correlation between transit availability and reduced automobile travel, independent of transit use. Transit reduces U.S. travel by an estimated 102.2 billion vehicle miles traveled (VMT) each year. This is equal to 3.4 percent of the annual VMT in the U.S. in 2007."

"By reducing vehicle miles traveled, public transportation reduces energy use in the transportation sector and emissions. The total energy saved, less the energy used by public transportation and adding fuel savings from reduced congestion, is equivalent to 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline. The total effects reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobile travel by 37 million metric tons. This consists of 30.1 million metric tonnes reduced from secondary effects and a net savings of 6.9 million metric tonnes from primary effects and the effects of transit induced congestion reduction. To put the CO2 reductions in perspective, to achieve parallel savings by planting new forests, one would have to plant a forest larger than the state of Indiana."

Source: American Public Transportation Association (APTA), March 13, 2008

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Anyone know if there has

Anyone know if there has been a study that depicts figures on likelihood of opting to use transit based upon transit network density?

Bookmark and Share
Officials in South Africa understand the potential risks they've brought upon themselves. They've seen abandoned Olympic venues blight Athens. They know that even Beijing has had trouble luring events to its infamous Bird's Nest stadium. But South Africa remains hopeful.