Green travel and “double carbon goal”
Urban transportation is an important part of the transportation industry and is closely related to the life of residents. Energy saving and carbon reduction of urban transportation need to continue to tap its potential. The international organization C40 released a report at the 2021 United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, stating that the proportion of global urban public transport travel needs to be doubled, and the transition to zero emission public transport must be realized before 2030. Without such a change, countries will not be able to achieve the urgent goal of halving emissions by 2030 and controlling global temperature rise to 1.5 ° C by the end of this century.
Practice shows that vigorously developing subway, light rail, BRT and other public transport systems is an important way to save energy and reduce carbon in urban transportation in developed countries. When the same trip is completed, the energy consumption of cars is 3 times higher than that of buses. Through the construction of urban public transport system, the improvement of non motorized travel will be conducive to the establishment of an efficient and low-carbon urban transport system4. Most of the public trips in international metropolises, including rail transit and buses, have exceeded 70%, and the ratio of private car trips is relatively low. For example, the travel rate of private cars in New York is about 16%, while that in Hong Kong is only about 11%. The green travel rate of domestic metropolises is rising, making the private car travel rate begin to decline (figure-2). However, according to the data published by Wu Aoxiang and other scholars, in 2017, private car travel in Beijing accounted for 33.8% of the total travel rate, and in 2016, private car travel in Shenzhen accounted for 41.2% of the total travel rate.
Digital tools and public green travel
Most of the international digital technology enterprises have announced the goal of giving priority to the use of renewable energy in their energy supply. Enabling social low-carbon action and consumption through digital technology is the direction that international digital technology enterprises are vigorously promoting. Google is a representative international digital technology enterprise in the field of climate change mitigation. Its Google maps provides users with satellite images, aerial photography, streets, 360 ° interactive Street panorama, real-time traffic conditions and traffic route planning, so that travelers can choose the best travel mode more easily. Google maps has launched the option of “minimum carbon emission” in the navigation, so as to develop the travel route with the lowest carbon emission for users. Google Maps estimates that this initiative can reduce 1 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 E) for users every year, which is equivalent to reducing 200000 vehicles on the road. Waze, a subsidiary of Google, has launched a mutual aid Travel software platform, which encourages users to carpool to work. In 2019, waze’s carpooling mileage reached 120 million kilometers, offsetting 26000 tons of CO2 e emissions, equivalent to planting more than 400000 trees.
Research on public green travel behavior
In response to the national green bus initiative and the realization of the city’s “double carbon goal”, 67.2% of the respondents said that they would change the original high-carbon travel mode and choose a more green and low-carbon travel mode. 26% of the respondents said it was likely to change, only 6% said it was unlikely, and only 1.4% explicitly said it would not change the travel mode. Among the respondents who expressed that they could not or would not change their travel mode, 58% were out of consideration of commuting time and would not give up consideration of travel time because of green and low carbon.Green travel, commuting distance is the determining factor, and environmental protection and health are the main factors
