3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Area reachable in 5 minutes from a Public Transport Stop by foot (left) and using a last mile solution
(right)
2.2 Public Policy
2.2.1 Pursue investments in Public Transport
Alongside with investment in active mobility, a well-designed and high quality public transport
system is the best investment that can be made to save public space and reduce externalities:
1. Public transport is more “energy efficient” than the private automobile. Compared with
a car transporting 1.3 passengers, 90 a 90-seat diesel bus with 23 passengers on board 28
uses 3-4 times less fuel per passenger km. This also results in 70-75% fewer CO2
emissions;
2. Public transport is more “space efficient” than a private automobile. A person riding a
bus occupies, on average, 6-10 times less space than a person travelling in a private car.
Transferring a percentage of people from cars to buses, even adopting today’s “dirty”
technology, will achieve similar results in terms of CO2 reduction as will replacing the same
percentage of fossil fuel cars with electric cars. Furthermore, buses allow a significant saving of
urban space.
90 Average value for Luxembourg, source Eurostat 2002.
95