Shift to public, shared and non-motorized transport

Over the last century, countries from the United States to Kenya have emphasized cars as a mode of transport, expanding highway systems and increasing speed limits. This approach will need to shift from prioritizing traffic speed to enabling the movement of people: providing equitable, safe and widespread access to employment, services and recreation. 

By setting a target to increase the modal share of mass transit, governments can meet transport demand while improving air quality and increasing citizens’ physical activity. While these policies are typically implemented at the city level, national governments can set a pathway for cities to follow. According to their most recent Nationally Determined Contributions as of September 2023, 11 countries have established mode shift targets prioritizing public transport: Albania, Bangladesh, Cabo Verde, China, Costa Rica, India, Jordan, Malawi, Namibia, Palestine and Zimbabwe.

Key steps to achieve ridership targets include implementing bus rapid transit and other rapid transit. Measures to reduce demand for vehicle travel can help as well. These could include congestion charges; parking policies and smart land use; investing in public transport operations that improve quality, reliability, frequency and affordability; integrating and digitizing fare payment systems to make transit use easy and convenient; and providing safe and secure services.

Many public transport systems lack sustainable government support for operations — a fact made evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when ridership and fare revenue dropped. In Vienna, for example, fares cover just above half of operational costs, and the national government supplements these revenues with steady indirect payments, a public transport tax on large employers, and fees from on-street parking and city-owned parking garages. 

Congestion charges are another way to provide revenue for a wide-scale, city-level repositioning of public transport. In London, for instance, over £1.3 billion in such revenue over 14 years was reinvested in public transit, achieving a 30% reduction in congestion and a 38% increase in bus passenger numbers. 

Investing in public transport will also have positive impacts on the economy. Every $1 invested in public transportation generates $5 in economic returns, and every $1 billion in investments supports and creates approximately 50,000 jobs. There is no publicly available data for countries’ spending on non-car modes. This type of data likely exists at the national or sub-national level but would need to be collected and aggregated by an international source with sufficient resources.

Rapid transit systems, which encompass transport modes such as metros, light rail and bus rapid transit (BRTs), are crucial for decarbonizing the transport sector, particularly in urban areas. Rapid transit systems emit only half the emissions of private vehicles per passenger-kilometer (pkm) traveled.

This indicator tracks total annual investments in rapid transit systems. While there is no publicly available data for this, it is understood that the coverage of rapid transit systems is increasing in these 50 cities.

In 2010, coverage levels stood around 16 kilometers (km) of rapid transit infrastructure (such as metro tracks or dedicated BRT lanes) per million people in the 50 highest emitting cities; this increased to 19 km/million by 2020. Therefore, we estimate (by proxy) that investments in rapid transit networks have increased at modest rates.

Rapid transit systems need to rise sharply in this decade to align with 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) compatible pathways. By 2030, rapid transit coverage should reach 38 km per million people in the 50 highest emitting cities, requiring a six-fold increase in the current growth rate. This requires a commensurate increase in investments for rapid transit systems.