IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v168y2025icp1-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Gorges, Hannah
  • Mingardo, Giuliano

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Gorges, Hannah & Mingardo, Giuliano, 2025. "The potential of active modes to reduce short car trips. A data-driven approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:168:y:2025:i:c:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.03.015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X25001106
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.03.015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziliak, Stephen T. & McCloskey, Deirdre N., 2004. "Size matters: the standard error of regressions in the American Economic Review," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 527-546, November.
    2. Hine, Julian & Grieco, Margaret, 2003. "Scatters and clusters in time and space: implications for delivering integrated and inclusive transport," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 299-306, October.
    3. Glaeser, Edward L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2004. "Sprawl and urban growth," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 56, pages 2481-2527, Elsevier.
    4. Cervero, R. & Duncan, M., 2003. "Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1478-1483.
    5. Janet Currie & Reed Walker, 2011. "Traffic Congestion and Infant Health: Evidence from E-ZPass," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 65-90, January.
    6. Angus Eugene Retallack & Bertram Ostendorf, 2019. "Current Understanding of the Effects of Congestion on Traffic Accidents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-13, September.
    7. Roger Mackett, 2003. "Why do people use their cars for short trips?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 329-349, August.
    8. Colin Black & Alan Collins & Martin Snell, 2001. "Encouraging Walking: The Case of Journey-to-school Trips in Compact Urban Areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(7), pages 1121-1141, June.
    9. Bergström, A. & Magnusson, R., 2003. "Potential of transferring car trips to bicycle during winter," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 649-666, October.
    10. Næss, Petter & Peters, Sebastian & Stefansdottir, Harpa & Strand, Arvid, 2018. "Causality, not just correlation: Residential location, transport rationales and travel behavior across metropolitan contexts," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 181-195.
    11. repec:ejw:journl:v:1:y:2004:i:2:p:331-358 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ronald L. Wasserstein & Allen L. Schirm & Nicole A. Lazar, 2019. "Moving to a World Beyond “p," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(S1), pages 1-19, March.
    13. Guan, Xiaodong & Wang, Donggen, 2020. "The multiplicity of self-selection: What do travel attitudes influence first, residential location or work place?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. repec:rre:publsh:v:40:y:2010:i:3:p:257-272 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Cervero, Robert & Duncan, Michael, 2003. "Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt6zr1x95m, University of California Transportation Center.
    16. Li, Wenbo & Long, Ruyin & Chen, Hong & Geng, Jichao, 2017. "A review of factors influencing consumer intentions to adopt battery electric vehicles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 318-328.
    17. Sascha von Behren & Lisa Bönisch & Ulrich Niklas & Bastian Chlond, 2020. "Revealing Motives for Car Use in Modern Cities—A Case Study from Berlin and San Francisco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-18, June.
    18. Handy, Susan & Cao, Xinyu & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2005. "Correlation or causality between the built environment and travel behavior? Evidence from Northern California," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5b76c5kg, University of California Transportation Center.
    19. Gössling, Stefan & Kees, Jessica & Litman, Todd, 2022. "The lifetime cost of driving a car," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    20. S. Cairns & L. Sloman & C. Newson & J. Anable & A. Kirkbride & P. Goodwin, 2008. "Smarter Choices: Assessing the Potential to Achieve Traffic Reduction Using ‘Soft Measures’," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 593-618, January.
    21. Steg, Linda, 2005. "Car use: lust and must. Instrumental, symbolic and affective motives for car use," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 147-162.
    22. Tim De Ceunynck & Gert Jan Wijlhuizen & Aslak Fyhri & Regine Gerike & Dagmar Köhler & Alice Ciccone & Atze Dijkstra & Emmanuelle Dupont & Mario Cools, 2023. "Behavioural Profiling of Cycling and Walking in Nine European Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Singh, Abhilash C. & Faghih Imani, Ahmadreza & Sivakumar, Aruna & Luna Xi, Yang & Miller, Eric J., 2024. "A joint analysis of accessibility and household trip frequencies by travel mode," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    2. Zhao, Pengjun & Li, Shengxiao, 2017. "Bicycle-metro integration in a growing city: The determinants of cycling as a transfer mode in metro station areas in Beijing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 46-60.
    3. Schneider, Robert J., 2013. "Theory of routine mode choice decisions: An operational framework to increase sustainable transportation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 128-137.
    4. Chandra, Shailesh & Jimenez, Jose & Radhakrishnan, Ramalingam, 2017. "Accessibility evaluations for nighttime walking and bicycling for low-income shift workers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 97-108.
    5. Spencer, Phoebe & Watts, Richard & Vivanco, Luis & Flynn, Brian, 2013. "The effect of environmental factors on bicycle commuters in Vermont: influences of a northern climate," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 11-17.
    6. McDonald, Noreen C., 2008. "Household interactions and children’s school travel: the effect of parental work patterns on walking and biking to school," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 324-331.
    7. Santos, Georgina & Behrendt, Hannah & Teytelboym, Alexander, 2010. "Part II: Policy instruments for sustainable road transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 46-91.
    8. Marta Borowska-Stefańska & Michał Kowalski & Paulina Kurzyk & Alireza Sahebgharani & Szymon Wiśniewski, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Changeability of the Load of the Urban Road Transport System under Permanent and Short-Term Legal and Administrative Retail Restrictions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-30, April.
    9. Zuopeng Xiao & James H. Lenzer & Yanwei Chai, 2017. "Examining The Uneven Distribution Of Household Travel Carbon Emissions Within And Across Neighborhoods: The Case Of Beijing," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 487-506, June.
    10. Verma, Meghna & Rahul, T.M. & Vinayak, Pragun & Verma, Ashish, 2018. "Influence of childhood and adulthood attitudinal perceptions on bicycle usage in the Bangalore city," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 94-105.
    11. Jen-Jia Lin & Hsiao-Te Chang, 2010. "Built Environment Effects on Children’s School Travel in Taipai: Independence and Travel Mode," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(4), pages 867-889, April.
    12. Mohammad Paydar & Asal Kamani Fard & Mohammad Mehdi Khaghani, 2020. "Walking toward Metro Stations: the Contribution of Distance, Attitudes, and Perceived Built Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-19, December.
    13. repec:cdl:uctcwp:qt06v2g6dh is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Lee, Yongsung & Guhathakurta, Subhrajit, 2018. "An analysis of the effects of suburban densification on vehicle use for shopping: Do existing residents respond to land-use changes in the same way as recent movers?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 193-204.
    15. Amir Hajrasouliha & Li Yin, 2015. "The impact of street network connectivity on pedestrian volume," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(13), pages 2483-2497, October.
    16. Greg Rybarczyk & Changshan Wu, 2014. "Examining the Impact of Urban Morphology on Bicycle Mode Choice," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 41(2), pages 272-288, April.
    17. Jina Mahmoudi & Lei Zhang, 2020. "Impact of the Built Environment Measured at Multiple Levels on Nonmotorized Travel Behavior: An Ecological Approach to a Florida Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-39, October.
    18. Liang Long & Jie Lin & Kimon Proussaloglou, 2010. "Investigating Contextual Variability in Mode Choice in Chicago Using a Hierarchical Mixed Logit Model," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(11), pages 2445-2459, October.
    19. Cervero, Robert & Denman, Steve & Jin, Ying, 2019. "Network design, built and natural environments, and bicycle commuting: Evidence from British cities and towns," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 153-164.
    20. Emine Coruh & Faruk Urak & Abdulbaki Bilgic & Steven T. Yen, 2022. "The role of household demographic factors in shaping transportation spending in Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 3485-3517, March.
    21. Zhu, Pengyu & Zhao, Songnian & Jiang, Yanpeng, 2022. "Residential segregation, built environment and commuting outcomes: Experience from contemporary China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 269-277.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:168:y:2025:i:c:p:1-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.