Media Release
January 17 2007
The environmental cost of travel
We all know that environmental damage caused by carbon dioxide
emissions from motor vehicles travelling on our city streets is
considerably greater than if we choose to ride a bike.
University of South Australia researchers have been weighing up the
environmental cost and time differences in both travel modes by
conducting studies that compared motor vehicles with three different
emissions ratings and riders of varying fitness and road craft skill
levels.
In conducting the study, Research Fellow in the
Transport Systems
Centre,
Dr Stuart Clement selected five travel time routes within
Adelaide’s sprawling city for closer scrutiny. The motor vehicle travel
times for the routes designated by Austroads were modelled on data that
took into account factors such as peak hour travel, traffic congestion
and time spent waiting at stop lights.
“Very few studies have been done on bike travel times, and not in a
systematic way, especially studies that compare cycling as a mode of
transport with motor vehicle travel, so this is very new,” Dr Clement
said.
Travel times were calculated for motor vehicles and cycles travelling in
each direction on selected routes that varied in both distance and
profile.
The selected routes and distance one way were:
• 7.8 kilometres (km) Panorama to Adelaide CBD with small hill climb of
about 60 metres (m)
• 9.8 km Blackwood to Eastwood, large hill of about 220 m dominates the
route
• 11.8 km Ingle Farm and Rosslyn Park, undulating with about 100 m
height differential
• 15.6 km Reynella to Glandore, undulating with about an 80 m climb one
way and about 150 m in the other; and
• 18.3 km North Haven to Adelaide CBD, long and mostly flat.
CO2 emissions were calculated for each vehicle used in the study based
on the Green Vehicle Guide. The Toyota Corolla, had the best greenhouse
rating (GR) of 7.5 with CO2 emissions of 150 grams per km; the Holden
Commodore VZ Berlina had a GR of 5 with CO2 emissions of 250 gm/km; and
the Toyota Landcruiser had the worst GR of 1.5 with CO2 emissions of 390
gm/km.
Cyclists and drivers also generate a very low level of CO2 emissions as
they exhale, estimated to be about 40 gm/km for cyclists and 10 gm/km
for drivers.
“If we use the Corolla instead of the bike to travel along the
relatively flat North Haven to Adelaide route, the cost in CO2 emissions
will be about 2700 gm. If we ride our bike, it’s going to take 15
minutes longer but we will be helping the environment because we will
have saved about 2200 gm of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. And if we
take the bike instead of the Landcruiser, we’ll save a whopping 6600 gm
of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. That’s a smoke stack of savings if
we consider that this is one trip in one vehicle in one direction!” Dr
Clement says.
“Travel time comparisons between bicycles and motor vehicles on the
designated routes show that occasionally a bicycle will be faster than a
car for the entire route, for example, a young and fit recreational
cyclist on the Panorama to Adelaide route during the morning peak, and a
former professional road racing cyclist riding from Reynella to Glandore
during the morning peak. More frequently a bicycle will be faster than a
car on short sections, especially between paired intersections that have
coordinated traffic signals.
“While it’s generally going to take longer by bike, it is exercise that
we probably would not have done if we had driven the car, or would have
to find time to do. And by expending that little bit more energy riding,
we also have added health benefits,” he says.
But if the environmental costs of using a motor vehicle aren’t enough to
convince people to dust off their bikes, Dr Clement says that the
financial costs of using motor vehicles instead of bikes might also be
worth considering.
Various bodies representing the motoring public in Australia have
estimated the operating costs of the vehicles used in the study.
According to the RACV costing model for new cars over a five-year
period, the Corolla costs 50.4 cents/km, the Commodore 75.4 cents/km and
the Landcruiser 105.6 cents/km, while the commuter bike, based on Dr
Clement’s own somewhat high costings that include bike clothing and
accessories, costs 10 cents/km to run.
“If we compare the different travel modes on the North Haven to Adelaide
route, the bike will cost $1.83, the Corolla $9.22 and the Landcruiser
burns a $19.32 hole in the wallet for the one-way trip. And that doesn’t
even include the cost of car parking,” Dr Clement says.
“But some of the Austroads routes that were surveyed in this research
are too dangerous for sensible cyclists and have only been ridden once.
While infrastructure for cycling in Adelaide has improved a great deal
in the last 10 or so years, better facilities are needed so that riding
can be a much safer, viable option for commuting over a wider range of
Adelaide’s road network. We need to ensure that the government continues
to invest in healthy, environmentally friendly travel modes and to
promote awareness programs that help to make our city ‘green’. We hope
the research reported here may help people to consider more closely the
benefits of cycle commuting even just one day of the week.”
The research was funded by a grant from UniSA’s
Thinking on Two Wheels
Cycling Research Program of 2005.
Contact for interview
-
Dr Stuart Clement office (08) 8302 4375 email stuart.clement@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
- Geraldine Hinter office (08) 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861 832 email geraldine.hinter@unisa.edu.au