The potential of active modes to reduce short car trips. A data-driven approach

Hannah Gorges and Giuliano Mingardo

Transport Policy, 2025, vol. 168, issue C, 1-14

Abstract: Motorized individual mobility is associated with numerous negative externalities, necessitating a shift toward more sustainable transport modes. One potential strategy is to replace short car trips with walking and cycling. This study aims to better understand the behavioral patterns underlying short car trips and to quantify potential CO2 savings from their substitution. We analyze vehicle sensor data from the BMW Group, covering 89.4 million trips made by 149,709 vehicles in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium between June 2021 and October 2022. On average, trips under 5 km account for 38.2 percent of all trips, while those under 1 km represent 9.2 percent. These shares show no economically significant variation across seasons, countries, spatial structures, engine types, or driver types. Replacing all trips under 5 km could result in an average monthly CO2 saving of 7.4 kg per vehicle, while replacing all trips under 1 km would save 0.7 kg CO2. These findings highlight the persistent reliance on cars, even for short-distance travel.

Keywords: Short car trips; Mode choice; Habitual mobility behavior; Sustainable mobility; Vehicle sensor data; CO2 savings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25001106
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:168:y:2025:i:c:p:1-14

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.03.015

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().