GREEN TRANSPORT

Across Europe, the road sector makes up over  70% of transport emissions . As such, reducing the number of cars on the road has become a key priority for decarbonizing economies. To make this happen, France, Norway, and Luxembourg have each come up with a different approach.   France: Curbing fossil fuel energy use through a fuel tax.  In an effort to lead by example and walk the talk on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the French government announced an increase in fossil fuel tax in late 2017, along with rebates for buying electric vehicles. The economic rationale for taxing vehicles using fossil fuel is pretty straightforward:  the tax is expected to cover for all negative externalities associated with car use, including carbon emissions, but also air and noise pollution, traffic congestion, and safety hazards.  The measure, however, was heavily criticized for constraining individual mobility—especially for low-income workers in rural areas. Th...

  CONCLUSION: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES THE MOST SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT. European cities are starting to make headway in green technological initiatives and are transforming urban spaces to reduce carbon emissions. But which cities are making a difference and what are they doing to make mobility greener? Solar panelled bus stops to transform the city in Rzeszów, Poland As part of Rzeszów's commitment to investing in renewable technology, the Polish city will be implementing 140 new  eco-friendly bus shelters  and reducing CO2 emissions with electric buses by the end of September this year. The city's new smart bus shelters do not just provide you with a bench and shelter from the weather, they also have solar panels that are continually working to absorb the sun's energy. What's more, the director of the digital municipal infrastructure division at Asseco Data Systems, Paweł Sokołowski, tells us about the main station itself: "[It is] covered with photovoltaic cells – on t...

Bicycle Transport in Korea Korea acknowledges the importance of cycling and some cities implemented successfully bike sharing programs. Bicycle ownership is also relatively high with 166 bikes per 1000 persons. Nevertheless, the bicycle modal split is extremely low (in 2005 it was at 1.2 % and it didn’t change much since then). So far, Korean cities developed master plans and they tried to integrate bikes with public transport through bicycle parking facilities near subway stations. Korea has a national bicycle master plan. Cities are closing streets on weekend to get people on their bikes or on their feet. Metro System in Seoul In terms of efficiency the most environmentally friendly mass transit method is rail. If you don’t count in the suburban rail lines of Tokyo, then Seoul’s metro has the busiest metro system of the world. The first subway line was opened in 1975. There have been two phases of investments into rail transit in the capital area: Phase 1 (1971-1994) and Phase 2 ...

Vancouver has managed a near-miraculous transformation of its city transportation. Today, 50% of journeys are made by sustainable means–on a bike, walking, or using public transit. The city set a goal that 10% of all commutes would take place on bikes by 2020, and it hit that goal four years early. Street Films interviewed the people behind this success, along with citizens who are enjoying their newly car-independent city, in this new movie:  Vancouver’s Multi-Modal Success Story.   The story is long and began back in the 1960s when Vancouver rejected freeways. The city remains the only major North American city with no freeways within city limits, says Vancouver’s former chief planner Brent Toderian. Instead of ripping up the city, and building a bridge across the bay, the citizens instead decided to create the Sea Bus, a ferry service that takes 10 minutes to cross the water. Today the plan is multi-modal. Walking, bikes, and transit all link up so you can travel car-free...