Why Choosing Sustainability Means Making Public Transport a Commuter’s Top Choice
At WhereIsMyTransport, we believe that public transport has an essential role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local emissions, and improving quality of life. We encourage urban citizens to continue to use public transport, improving the experience through access to better information. Our CEO Devin de Vries recently wrote about sustainability’s central role in our mission in Reuters Sustainable Business.
The stakes are high. Transport is the world’s fourth-biggest emitting sector of greenhouse gases, yet sales of fuel-guzzling SUVs continue to rise around the world. As incomes rise for the world’s 3.2 billion emerging-markets urban residents, more people can afford to buy cars, increasing competition for public transport. Digitalising public transport network information can make public transport commuters’ lives easier, maintaining the attractiveness of this mobility option even as incomes increase.
In developed markets, moving the average car trip to a bus can cut carbon emissions by more than half. Even informal transport vehicles release 4–8 times lower emissions than a private car. In Manila, for example, preventing just 1% of commuters from buying a car saves 630,000+ tonnes of carbon dioxide every year — equivalent to annual emissions from about 110,000 people in the UK.
Recognising sustainability as an inherent part of our mission, WhereIsMyTransport was delighted be selected by Elemental Excelerator — a global climate-tech accelerator — to join its 2020 cohort, from among 800 applicants. As Danielle Harris, Elemental’s Director of Mobility Innovation said, our data, “centered on the patterns of actual people, can better inform decision-making and make commuting easier, more reliable, and more accessible for millions of people.”
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