Improving the efficiency of passenger transport by increasing vehicle occupancy rates.

Transcription

1 Passenger car occupancy is falling in some countries (Portugal, Finland), but rather stable as an EU-average, despite EU efforts to increase utilisation efficiency, for example through its Citizens Network strategy. Occupancy rates for other passenger transport modes (buses, trains) have not improved during recent decades, except for air transport. The occupancy rates of trains and buses are expected to improve in future, as budget cuts eliminate unprofitable lines. Figure 1: Evolution of occupancy rates for passenger cars, passenger-km per vehicle-km DK F NL P FIN S UK Objective Improving the efficiency of passenger transport by increasing vehicle occupancy rates. Definition Occupancy rate: average number of passengers in a vehicle (cars, buses, trains, aircraft). Policy and targets Measures to increase occupancy rates include schemes for favouring vehicles with more than one passenger (through-traffic privileges) and initiatives to promote car sharing. Private companies are increasingly promoting car sharing. However, there are no explicit targets for these indicators at the EU level. The Citizens network By developing the Citizens Network the European Commission aims to promote local and regional public transport services to become a more attractive alternative to private cars. Although increasing occupancy rates in public transport services is not specifically named, promotion of public transport services should have that effect. The work programme established to realise the Citizens Network consists of four pillars: 1. Information exchange through the European Local Transport Information Service (ELTIS); Version

2 2. Benchmarking based on self assessment; 3. Establishing the right policy framework (e.g. support for more fair and efficient pricing in transport and promotion of integrating mobility aspects into spatial planning policies); 4. Financial instruments used in demonstration projects and in supporting sustainable local and regional transport through the structural funds. Some Member States have developed policies for occupancy rates of passenger cars. Sweden Denmark Italy Sweden has adopted targets for increasing the average number of people in private cars by 5 %. The Danish Ministry of Transport encourages initiatives to promote passenger car sharing. Shared planning tools, automatic toll systems, ICT systems etc. are to be developed across administrative boundaries in order to improve car usage efficiency (Danish Ministry of Transport, 1996). Since 1998 firms with more than a given number of employee are obliged to create a mobility manager whose task is to plan daily commuting in order to increase vehicle sharing. Findings Utilisation efficiency is one of the main parameters that determine energy and emissions efficiency. A high occupancy rate in passenger cars and buses has relatively little impact on overall vehicle weight, and therefore on energy consumption. Cars Occupancy rates for passenger cars are decreasing slightly in most Member States, as a result of increasing car ownership (see #Vehicle fleet and ownership), extended use of cars for commuting (see #Passenger transport demand) and a continued decline in household size. Car occupancy rates per travel purpose Buses and coaches Rail Car occupancy rates differ according to travel purpose. Table 1 shows some purposes and the corresponding occupancy rates. Family trips and leisure trips are generally much better occupied than commuting trips. Occupancy rates for buses and coaches vary widely between Member States. For example, in the United Kingdom an average bus carries around 9 persons while in France this figure is around 25. The differences between Member States can be explained by different organisation of public transport (fares, frequency, accessibility, etc). In most Member States there is a tendency to privatise bus companies and/or cut back subsidy levels. Hence, unprofitable bus-lines are being closed down. This results in higher occupancy rates and corresponding improvements in usage efficiency. Occupancy rates in rail transport declined in most Member States, so the efficiency of use has not improved between 1980 and Occupancy rates in the Netherlands have increased markedly (by more than 30 % between 1980 and 1998). This is probably due to increasing congestion on roads, improved efficiency of the Dutch railways (i.e. closing down less profitable lines) and more seats per train (Dutch Railway Company, 2000). Version

3 Figure 2: Occupancy rates for trains (EU-15), Passenger-km per vehicle-km Occupancy rates for trains vary between train types (see Tables 2 and 3). Conventional trains are on average 35 % full, while the occupancy rate of high-speed trains is generally higher, varying for different countries and connections (e.g. about 80 % for the TGV Paris-Lyon, about 50 % on average for the German ICE. Air Based on data from principal carriers only, including domestic flights, the average seat occupancy of European airlines increased by around 12 % in the past two decades. The average aircraft is now around 70 % occupied. Austria and the Netherlands showed remarkable increases (both 20 %), probably due to the importance of airports as mega-hubs in the international market. Figure 3: Seat occupancy in aviation for principal European carriers, Seat occupancy in % Box: Car sharing some examples Car sharing can reduce the number of cars and help to achieve a more efficient use of each car, because the cars are unused for shorter periods and have a higher average occupancy rate. The linkage between increasing car ownership and increasing transport volumes is thereby reduced. Version

4 Car sharing is becoming more and more popular across Europe, benefiting the participants (financially) and the environment. The ECS (European Car Sharing) network, founded in 1980, now includes 40 organisations in 550 cities in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and Norway (ECS). StattAuto Car Sharing GmbH, established in 1988 and operating in Berlin, has about members and the number is gradually increasing. The car fleet consists of 180 vehicles travelling an average of km a year compared with km for the average German car. Most trips (83 %) last less than 24 hours and 30 % of the trips are less than 100 km. On average, each trip covers 98 km. The average annual mileage of StattAuto users is km per person compared with km per person per year for non-users. The average occupancy rate of StattAuto cars is two persons, compared with the German average of 1.3 persons. Bremen has introduced a joint ticket for Public Transport and Car-Sharing. When purchasing this card, card-holders are in essence purchasing their mobility across a number of modes and are no longer constrained to one mode only. With more than Car-Sharers in Bremen and 630 combined season-tickets (Bremen has a high share of biking) there is a reduction of about tons of CO 2 annually. About private cars have been replaced (OECD, 2000). Source: ECS; OECD, 2000 Future work More work is needed to provide reliable and comparable data for occupancy rates for all modes. Occupancy rates for passenger cars differ considerably, depending on the length and purpose of the trip. Breakdowns by purpose (work/education, business, shopping and leisure) are therefore needed. Seat occupancy for trains and buses should become available. Data Table 1: Travel purpose Occupancy rates by travel purpose in Europe Occupancy rate (passengers per vehicle) Commuting to/from work Family trip Travel and leisure Source: IEA, 1997 Table 2: Average occupancy rates of high-speed trains, Unit: percentage of seats occupied Railway company Germany DB AG Italy FS SpA Netherlands NS Spain RENFE Sweden SJ Belgium SNCB/NMBS France SNCF Finland VR Version

5 Source: UIC, 1999 Table 3: Average occupancy rates of conventional trains Unit: percentage of passenger seats occupied Traffic type Link Occupancy rate % Urban transport (dominant rush hours) Regional transport/ InterRegio (IR) Intercity (IC)/ International (EC) Urban train (Copenhagen) typical value West Link (Denmark) East Link (Denmark) Typical value Danish InterCity links German IC average Danish international traffic German EC average Typical value Source: Infras, 1998 Table 4: Occupancy rates for passenger cars (EU-15), Unit: passenger-km/vehicle-km EU- 15 B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK 1980 : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1.6 : : : : : : 1.6 : : : : : : : 1.6 : : : 1.6 : : : : : 1.6 : : : 1.6 : : : 1.8 : : : 1.6 : : : 1.6 : : : 1.8 : : : : : : 1.5 Table 6: Number of passengers per vehicle-km for buses and coaches (EU-15), Unit: passenger-km/vehicle-km EU B DK D EL E F IRL I L NL A P FIN S UK 1980 : : : : : : 18.2 : : 12.8 : : : : : : : : : : 22.1 : : : : : : 22.3 : : : : : : : 22.5 : : Version

6 1996 : : 19.8 : : : : : 22.3 : : : : 19.5 : : : : : : : 23.3 : : : : 19.3 : : : : : : : : : : 13.0 : 8.6 Meta data Technical information Data sources: The data on occupancy rates: Eurostat Statistical Compendium 2001 The data on passenger cars occupancy rates from IEA, 1997; Trains: UIC, 1999 and Infras, 1998 Description of data: Occupancy rates from are calculated by dividing the passenger-km by the vehicle-km. File: Occupancy rates.xls Original measure units: Passenger-km and vehicle-km Original purpose: Unknown Geographical coverage: EU-15 (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom). Temporal coverage: 1980, 1985, ( for seat occupancy in aviation) Methodology and frequency of data collection: Unknown Methodology of data manipulation: Qualitative information Strength and weakness (at data level): Passenger-km and vehicle-km data are estimated. The possible error is the error in passengerkm times the error in vehicle-km. Furthermore, some passenger-km data are calculated by using an estimation of the average number of vehicle-km and the average occupancy rates. Using this calculated passenger-km and the calculated vehicle-km to calculate the average occupancy rate is not a good methodology. Reliability, accuracy, robustness, uncertainty (at data level): The data from Eurostat Statistical Compendium is less reliable since for some countries the occupancy rate is below 1 for passenger cars and above 10 for motorcycles. Further work required (for data level and indicator level): The vehicle-km data should be collected regularly, using the same definition and measuring method in all Member States, preferable through surveys. References Danish Ministry of Transport, 1996: The Danish Government s Action Plan for Reduction of the CO 2 - Emissions of the Transport Sector. The Danish Ministry of Transport, Denmark, May 1996 Version

7 Dutch Railway Company, 2000: Jaarverslag statistische bijlage. Nederlandse Spoorwegen [Annual report statistical annex. The Dutch Railway Company]. The Netherlands, ECS: European Car Sharing Network: Eurostat, 2001: Transport and Environment: Statistics for the Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM) for the European Union, data European Commission in cooperation with Eurostat, Luxembourg 2001 {version 12/9/00}. IEA, 1997: Indicators of Energy Use and Efficiency. International Energy Agency. Paris, France. Infras, 1998: Intermodal Comparisons of Atmospheric Pollutant Emissions. MEET Project: Methodologies for Estimating Air Pollutant Emissions from Transport Deliverable No. 24. Infras, Bern, Switserland, October OECD, 2000: est! synthesis report. Synthesis Report of the OECD project on Environemnatlly Sustainable Transport EST presented on occasion of the International est! Conference 4 th to 6 th October 2000, Vienna, Austria. UIC, 1999: Chronological Railway Statistics. International Union of Railways. Paris, France. Version