Cut emissions by driving less and driving better.
Transport Emissions Grow as Driving Grows
Road transport emissions are large: 12% of world emissions; 25% of developed country emissions; 50% of emissions in many cities.
Road emissions seem to be growing uncontrollably. From 1990 to 2010, Austria cut industrial emissions by 5.1 million tons, but saw their transport emissions increase by 8.6 million tons. Why? Emissions go up because driving goes up. In the US, distance traveled has tripled since 1970. Emissions doubled, because fuel efficiency grows more slowly than driving. More driving on limited roads also caused traffic jams, increasing emissions.
The same path is being followed today in the developing world ... on much faster timelines.
Start Driving Less and Driving Better:
A suggested hierarchy for reducing transport emissions is:
1. Drive Less: moving a two-tonne hunk of metal around uses energy. Less driving means less energy use, hence less emissions. We can combine trips, carpool, ride share and telework relatively painlessly: almost half of the trips in the US morning rush hour are for shopping or recreation. People will drive smarter if they have incentives: metering and money are a powerful tool to immediately change behavior.
2. Drive Better: Skymeter makes it possible to teach green driving habits, reducing fuel consumption. Other Skymeter-enabled policies reduce traffic jams, making driving faster and more efficient.
3. Drive Better Cars: the average car on the road is around 10 years old. Around 1% of cars sold today are hybrids; JP Morgan estimates this will increase to 20% by 2020. Long-lived cars and slow changes in buying habits mean that it will take to 2040 for most of us to be driving better cars. We need strategies that work with the cars we have: driving less and driving better!!
How Can We Reward Driving Less?
Today's flat fee payments give car owners a strong incentive to drive more. To reward people who drive less, switch all car-related costs to per mile (or km) charges. Buy your car per mile and pay your insurance per mile; pay for parking and roads as you use them.
As costs move to usage-based fees, you will discover the true cost of driving is over $1.00 per mile (€0.50/km). Imagine if you paid $1.00 per mile to drive. Would it be more attractive to carpool for your 30 mile daily commute if it cost $30.00? Would you consider public transit as an alternative? Look at the flip side: imagine being able to control and reduce your car cost each month. With Skymeter-enabled per mile (or km) charges you will be rewarded for driving less!!
As US communities changed from flat fee to metered water, consumption went down 20-40%.
Metering transport can have the same effect.
