INSTITUT Veolia Environnement

  • Home
  • Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

How to achieve a better distribution between the various urban transit modes?

In view of the market share of each of these modes of motorised urban transport, the data showing their energy and environmental efficiency, as well as their "spatial efficiency", shows the completely dominant role of private cars and motorcycles. In France, these individual modes of transport represent 95% of the energy consumed for the urban transport of people. Representing only 5% of energy consumption, public transport provides approximately 15% of travel. In relation to global pollution in urban environments, from whatever source, road traffic plays a major role in the fight to reduce atmospheric pollution. It is responsible for 65% of CO emissions, 33% of NOx and 40% of CO2.

Obviously, consumption and emission should be seen in relation to the services provided by the private car. Nevertheless, on another scale the consumption for transport purposes represents 60% of French imports of petrol and about half of that volume is consumed through urban and suburban transport. In a context where savings in fossil fuels and the balance of external trade figures are both issues for governmental economic policy, there is some virtue in seeking a better way of distributing urban transport between the various possible modes.

Despite the considerable advances achieved by cars and lorries as regards energy savings and the reduction of gas emissions in the last few decades, the growth in traffic volume and in particular the increase in the number of kilometres travelled has been such that technical progress has just about managed to stabilise consumption and emission but has not obtained any reduction. The total length of time for a new technology to penetrate to new vehicles is about 15 years, but penetration to the entire body of vehicles on the road is more of the order of 30 years. Moreover, the rapid growth in numbers of private cars in emerging countries, such as China, India, or Latin America, leads to the benefits from technological progress being cancelled out by the growth in automobile transport.

The goal of achieving a better distribution of transport between the various urban transit modes in developed countries and slowing down the growth of exclusive use of private cars in emerging countries therefore rests on increasing the efficiency of public transport. In both cases, however, although the level of use of private cars is not (yet) equivalent, the challenge is to get city dwellers in industrialised countries to prefer public transport, to keep users who are tempted by private car travel (in both emerging and industrialised countries) within the public transport system and reduce the volume of direct transition from walking and cycling to private cars (in emerging countries). And in every city worldwide, but in very different proportions, to ensure that "captives" can move around in vast urban spaces within which they must be able to secure, like everyone else, employment and services.