Is Riding The Subway Greener Than Driving A Car?

Is riding the subway a greener form of transportation than driving a car? It’s a question that most of us would ignore as ridiculous, but some researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley have decided there is more to it than meets the eye.


Is riding the subway a greener form of transportation than driving a car? It’s a question that most of us would ignore as ridiculous, but some researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley have decided there is more to it than meets the eye. They explain that, in some cases, riding in an SUV that is full of other passengers may be a more environmentally friendly way to travel than riding a subway that is nearly empty.


Of course, it all depends on where the subway is getting its energy from (burning fossil fuels, or renewables), and the amount of power that a subway station needs to operate. To accurately figure out which vehicle is the greenest, we need to consider vehicle production emissions as well as fuel production and building considerations, rather than simply tailpipe emissions. If you’re interested in learning more about the research being done in the field, be sure to read the journal where the article has been published, Environmental Research Letters.