CO2 Emissions and the Microtransit Movement 🚚

Choon Kiat Lee (ckl41) Christ’s College, Lab Group 89

Introduction:
With the threat of climate change looming ever larger, interest in solutions to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions has gathered steam. We analyse current emissions data to
identify a probable area of improvement, and suggest a solution that could help to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
Detailed Situation Study
Indeed, of the 37.5 million vehicles on UK roads today, 31.1 million are cars. [3] One
key reason for this is that travel by cars is often the only practicable solution for
working professionals, who value the reliability, control and convenience that cars
provide over current public transport such as buses or trains

Analysing Current Emissions Data: Possible Solution: Microtransits

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the larger contributors to current greenhouse gas Microtransits are for-profit bus services that
emissions (GHG) is the transport sector (25%) – Fig 1. cater to commuters willing to pay more for a
ride that’s more direct and comfortable than
Electricity and heat production those offered by existing public transportation

1% Put simply, they are buses that come on

25% Manufacturing industries and demand (uber for buses)
construction
44%
Residential buildings and Why microtransits for the consumer?
commercial and public services
21% Direct
9% Transport Ideal
Convenient
Other sectors replacement
On Demand
for cars
Reliable
Fig 1: Pie Chart showing % of total fuel combustion by sector [1]
Ecological Advantages
Light Road Vehicles Crowd-sourced route planning with real time route optimization
use over 50% of fuel Within the transport • Allows routes to cater efficiently to changing demand – Less buses required
consumed in transport sector, light road • Quicker journey times – Encourage car users to switch to shared transport
vehicles (mainly
passenger cars) are Conclusions
one of the biggest Transport, specifically passenger cars has been found to be a major source of carbon
consumers of energy dioxide emissions. Microtransits are proposed as a exciting new solution which provides
and accounts for the an attractive incentive for car owners to switch to ecologically friendly shared transport
largest amount of
greenhouse gases References
[1] World development indicators. Washington, D.C. :The World Bank.
produced – Fig 2
[2] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2015). Climate change 2014: mitigation of
climate change (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.
[3] Vehicle Licensing Statistics: Quarter 1 (Jan - Mar) 2017. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19, 2018,
Fig 2: Final energy consumption of fuels in 2009 for freight and passengers [Source: IPCC 2014] [2] https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/620223/vehicle
-licensing-january-to-march-2017.pdf