World Car Emissions Rise – Mobility Report 2021 by Kapsch TrafficCom

• Emissions rapidly surge back to pre-COVID-19 levels

VIENNA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The transport industry is the fastest growing source of global emissions: Today, it generates around 28% of total emissions with 59% coming from passenger vehicles and light trucks. While many other sectors already reduce their emissions year after year – transport is going the other way threatening to undermine Paris Agreement targets. The Mobility Report 2021 by Kapsch TrafficCom illustrates the current transport challenges and shows how to deal with them.

Although vehicle miles traveled (VMT) dramatically declined during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. In addition, many people are less willing to use public transport than previously due to the infection risk – putting even greater demand on road networks and increasing VMT. As dependence on private vehicles continues to grow worldwide, no city or highways authority can be complacent about the growing emissions challenge. The average gas-powered car emits 8887g of CO₂ per gallon of gas and a total of 4.6 metric tons of CO₂ every year.

Shortterm mobility solutions

“Shortterm solutions are urgently needed to curb emissions from millions of vehicles on the world’s road networks,” says Alfredo Escriba, CTO of Kapsch TrafficCom. “Urban traffic and congestion management provide an immediate impact helping to reduce CO₂ emissions. Reducing stop-and-go-traffic by communicating traffic signal information to drivers alone has been shown to reduce fuel consumption and therefore emissions according to a recent study from Canada. More advanced methods, involving vehicle connectivity and AI-based data processing, can further reduce emissions caused by congestion and inefficient traffic.”

For decades, authorities in many countries have been implementing intelligent transport systems – from signalling solutions to congestion charging schemes. However, legacy approaches tend to focus on stand-alone and siloed solutions that use only a small subset of the traffic data nowadays available. Traditional approaches therefore only can provide limited emissions and air quality benefits.

New Buenos Aires Traffic Management

The City of Buenos Aires developed a strategic plan in 2017, shifting from reactive to proactive-collaborative Traffic Management. The new Integrated Mobility Management System was deployed in the center with Kapsch’s EcoTrafiXTM platform – including Google Maps and Waze information, Tolling Operators, and other third party systems.

Full text press release at: https://www.kapsch.net/kapsch/media/press/ktc/ktc_210427_pr?lang=en-us

For additional information: www.kapsch.net/ktc?lang=en-us