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Ten people riding one bus emit less CO₂ than 10 people driving 10 cars, especially when that bus is running on low-emission or carbon-free fuel. Mass transit can first help the environment simply by being popular. Then it can go one step further and reduce its own emissions. The following is a review of the top mass-transit systems around the world.

Large-Scale Mass Transit
Fully 90% of Hong Kong travels by mass transit, so it’s no surprise that Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) transports an average of 3.7 million passengers each weekday.

As well as its vast coverage, through a 174 km subway system, 35.2 km Airport Express and 36.2 km Light Rail network, much of MTR’s popularity can be credited to its affordability. This is mainly due to the Octopus card, the world’s first non-contact payment card, which can be topped up and scanned as payment, not only for transport but also for parking meters, shops and restaurants. Perks for Octopus card users include free Feeder Bus trips between certain housing estates and MTR stations.

Tokyo’s aid to the environment can be measured by its sheer size, as its commuter-rail networks alone make 10.6 billion trips annually—equivalent to all the public-transport trips made in the continental United States and Canada combined. The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) carries nearly six billion (yes, billion) passengers a year, and mass transit makes up 57% of travel in Tokyo, the world’s largest urban area.

Low-Emission Mass Transit
Bogotá’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Columbia has managed to reduce the use of bus fuel by 59% since 2001, by removing 7,000 small buses from service and launching low-emission buses. This explains why the UN allowed TransMilenio’s BRT project to start selling carbon credits to companies that need to pay to balance their emissions budgets. Reserving certain lanes in roads for BRT buses enables them to pick up the speed to make an average of 1.6 million trips per day. Developing cities around the world, such as Mexico City, Cape Town, Jakarta, Indonesia and Ahmedabad, are planning or building similar versions of this high-speed, low-emission bus service.

Copenhagen in Denmark has enhanced its successful mass-transport system by launching a fleet of electric CityCirkel buses, whose batteries last all day after being charged at night. Other modes of mass transport around Copenhagen include driverless automatic Metro trains, which run 24 hours a day.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA)electric trolley bus (tram) fleet of 344 is larger than that of any other transit agency in the US and Canada. While electric trams generally emit less pollution than fossil fuels, SFMTA’s fleet is run on hydroelectricity from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, making them carbon neutral. Other types of SFMTA transport include light rail, cable cars and hybrid electric-diesel buses, the latter of which emit 95% less soot than the buses they replaced.

Brighton-and-Hove in the UK boasts a fleet of yellow buses that run on 100% recycled, locally sourced vegetable oil. Cooking oil collected from local fish and chip shops, restaurants and hotels is processed into biodiesel in a nearby factory, creating an alternative to mineral diesel. The Big Lemon bus company explains that burning plant material doesn’t release any new emissions into the air, as the plants collected the CO₂ in recent years, while burning mineral biodiesel releases CO₂ that has been buried for thousands of years.

Our Role in Mass Transit
Hopefully, all cities will expand their mass transit until they provide convenient transportation for all of their citizens, as well as learn from each other so that their systems become more and more eco friendly. In the meantime, there is much we can do:

• Use mass transportation when it’s too far for us to walk
• Engage family, friends and coworkers in discussions about the benefits of mass transit
• Vote for, give campaign contributions to and work for the election of candidates who favor public-transportation improvement, expansion and affordability.
• Join one or more of the organizations offering advice on how to promote public transport, such as the Livable Streets Initiative.

Mass transportation might be dictated by the government and its relationship with privately owned transport companies, but we are funding it with our taxes—and paying for its absence or shortcomings through suffering the anti-environmental consequences. For these reasons, it behooves us to become actively involved in transportation and environmental policy.

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