Clean Cars vs Less Traffic: How Much Do They Cut Pollution from Cars?

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Final Up to date on: twenty eighth February 2025, 10:12 pm

Clear vehicles vs much less site visitors: How a lot do they lower air pollution from vehicles?

Greenhouse gasoline emissions from highway transport within the EU-27 have elevated by 23% between 1990 and 2022, whereas in the identical interval the entire from all sectors has decreased by 29%. Extra measures are wanted to convey greenhouse gasoline emissions from highway site visitors consistent with the agreed European targets and with worldwide agreements to restrict local weather change. What works?

Efficient measures to cut back automobile site visitors and the associated air pollution are:

a. Concentrating properties and companies in cities and cities. New homes are set so as to add 10% to the Dutch housing inventory. If these had been inbuilt current cities, automobile mobility might be about 3% decrease than if they’re unfold out. It is because, on common, metropolis dwellers drive much less, whereas entry to jobs and services continues to be higher as a result of all the pieces is nearer.

b. Much less motorway growth. By not increasing motorway capability, there might be about 3% much less automobile site visitors in 2030 than with deliberate expansions within the Netherlands.

c. Redesigning cities for a wholesome and nice dwelling surroundings. This can cut back the quantity of house accessible for vehicles and result in a number of share factors much less automobile mobility nationally. Residents of Dutch giant cities have decreased automobile journey per individual by 1 / 4 because the flip of the century.

d. Higher and cheaper public transport. If this attracts 50% extra passengers, it reduces automobile use by 1–2%.

Taken collectively, these measures will cut back automobile mobility by about 10% and thus additionally the air pollution from vehicles. These estimates are defined in my current article “Better public transport does not reduce car emissions.”

Switching to electrical vehicles has a much bigger influence: greenhouse gasoline emissions are decreased by 60–70%. This consists of the manufacturing of the automobile, together with the batteries. The remaining emissions come primarily from the supplies used, akin to metal, aluminium and plastics. Measures to inexperienced these supplies will additional cut back the environmental influence of the automobile. Reversing the development in direction of larger and heavier vehicles additionally reduces the remaining environmental influence.

Opposite to most official projections, I don’t anticipate greater prices for automobile driving to have a major influence on future automobile use. It is because driving is so low-cost — or might be made cheaper by shopping for a less expensive automobile — that the utmost time individuals are prepared to spend on mobility now limits the amount of automobile site visitors. For additional data, see my paper The transport-urbanisation dialectic.

First printed on T&E website. By Arie Bleijenberg, President, T&E.