Sustainable Personal Transport Modes in a Life Cycle Perspective—Public or Private?

Life cycle-based studies endorse public transport to cause lower environmental pressures compared to a private car. However, a private car can cause lower environmental pressure when a public vehicle (bus or train) runs on a lower occupancy during an off-peak hour. This fact should be the basis for a more profound debate regarding public versus private transport. Many transport interventions are striving to reduce the number of car transports. To reach this goal, passengers need attractive alternatives to their reduced number of car travels (i.e., attractive public transport). This study aimed to develop a model allowing us to estimate potential environmental gains by changing travel behavior. A passenger travel model was developed based on life cycle inventories (LCI) of different travel modes to calculate environmental footprints. The model was applied in an intervention of public transport through temporary free public transport. The intervention was successful in significantly reducing the number of car transports (12%). However, total passenger kilometer travelled (PKT) increased substantially more, mainly by bus, but also train, bicycle and walking. The total energy, carbon and nitrogen oxide footprints were slightly increased after the intervention. If the commuters were assumed to travel during peak hours or the number of public transports were not affected by the increased number of commuters, the overall environmental footprints decreased. Our conclusions are that transport interventions are very complex. They may result in desired changes, but also in altered travel behavior, increasing overall impact. Thus, a very broad evaluation of all transport modes as well as potential positive social influences of the transport intervention will be necessary.