People who prefer cars can also be encouraged to use public transport more often through the implementation of passenger-friendly policies on trains, such as Internet access, shown in the abovementioned study. This will discourage car dependency.
Other initiatives include the Friendly WiFi certification, a government-initiated safe certification standard for public WiFi, ensuring a safe and filtered public browser. Nomad Digital are proud to be an Approved Provider of Friendly WiFi.
Moreover, the study indicates that public transport commuters can benefit more from Internet access than car commuters. Naturally, this is because public transport commuters are less restricted when travelling than drivers. Nevertheless, drivers can also benefit from accessing real-time travel information, but don’t have as much flexibility as public transport commuters. Moreover, private cars are a less sustainable mode of transport than public transport. To put things into perspective, let’s look at CO2 emissions per km travelled from the three main modes of transport: standard diesel car (one passenger), standard diesel car (four passengers), bus, and domestic rail.
As we can see from the graph, a 1-passenger car emits 171g CO2/km. However, sharing a car between four people means this amount is split between passengers, reducing emissions to 43g CO2/km per person. Buses emit 104g CO2/km, while domestic rail produces 41g CO2/km. Domestic rail is the most sustainable mode of transport, followed by carpooling and buses.
Increasing public transport ridership through the increased use of ICTs and Internet access has a host of benefits. It not only helps passengers make the most of travel time but also reduces CO2 emissions and sustains the planet.
The public transport industry has an array of opportunities available to both optimise passengers’ journeys and travel time and to also encourage the use of more sustainable modes of travel. All of this is possible due to the increased use of ICT.
