How can you lower your transportation footprint?
Motorcycles
| But what about motorcycles? From a safety and noise standpoint the motorcycle is maybe not the preferred choice in the future mix of transportation options. But one thing is better when riding a motorcycle than when driving an ICE car, the emissions. A lot of people ride motorcycles. There are 600 million two wheeled commuters world wide. and in 2022 alone 60 millions were sold worldwide. LINK Motorcycles, scooters and mopeds are a quick and easy way of getting around in a big congested city, and they don’t require big public roadworks in the same way that cars and trains and buses do. But they are not very safe, they make a lot of noise and they sometimes create dangerous situations in traffic, and represent about 15% of the number of fatalities caused by traffic accidents. LINK But as for the emissions, 10km of riding a motorcycle emits about 1.13kg CO2e, or equivalent to driving 5.8km of driving in a car. Relative to this, 10km travelling by bus per passenger is about 1.03kg CO2e, or equivalent to 5.72km of driving in a car. LINK |
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Public Transportation
But the best option you have if you want to transport yourself in a sustainable way will always be to use public transport whenever possible, og take the old school bike, or even walk. But you already knew that, right?
If you can ride a bike (or a scooter)
| Riding a bike (or an E-bike) will, for the most part, be just as fast as most other forms of transportation in the cities, especially during rush hour. If you are not able to walk or take public transport in the inner city buying an E-bike or an E-scooter could seem like a good idea, unless you want to be really sustainable and just use a normal bicycle or a kick scooter. The many public for-rent E-scooters that are placed around many larger cities are not really the sustainable alternative they seem to be. The life-time mileage of a public E-scooter is low but the resources used in battery production is the same as if you buy your own E-bike og E-scooter, but you will probably ride your own bike or scooter for much longer distances before they need to be recycled. Also be aware that public E-scooter are collected each night for recharging and put back in the city. This is done by ICE vehicles in most cases. LINK |
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If you really have to use a car
Of course you will always wonder if you can shorten your commute, get a job closer to your home, or be allowed to work remotely for some of the time. But still you will have to transport yourself to get to work.
Carpooling is definitely an option and there are a lot of web services that allow you to find others who are driving on the same route as you, and would like some company and not least to save some money.
But if that is not a convenient solution you can consider getting an EV car instead of the old gasoline or diesel car. This, however, requires you to have access to a charging station, either at home, or at work. Most EVs can drive between 3-400 km on a charge, so most people should be able to get to work and back without having to charge on the way.
Charging stations are being rolled out all throughout Europe, and in the cities you can find parking spots for EVs and in some countries like Norway you can even park for free there (but you’ll still have to pay for electricity).
So in some countries the future of EV transportation is moving nearer, whereas in other countries it still seems to be over the horizon.
Another option is to leave your car at the edge of the city at a carpool parking lot, and then switch to public transport from there. In many European cities it is the cheapest and easiest way to get into the city and park your car.
In the city centre there are many ways of getting around by using public transport or just by walking.
Carpooling is definitely an option and there are a lot of web services that allow you to find others who are driving on the same route as you, and would like some company and not least to save some money.
But if that is not a convenient solution you can consider getting an EV car instead of the old gasoline or diesel car. This, however, requires you to have access to a charging station, either at home, or at work. Most EVs can drive between 3-400 km on a charge, so most people should be able to get to work and back without having to charge on the way.
Charging stations are being rolled out all throughout Europe, and in the cities you can find parking spots for EVs and in some countries like Norway you can even park for free there (but you’ll still have to pay for electricity).
So in some countries the future of EV transportation is moving nearer, whereas in other countries it still seems to be over the horizon.
Another option is to leave your car at the edge of the city at a carpool parking lot, and then switch to public transport from there. In many European cities it is the cheapest and easiest way to get into the city and park your car.
In the city centre there are many ways of getting around by using public transport or just by walking.
