Questions tagged [transport]

moving people or freight from one place to another. This includes use of cars, trucks, buses, aircraft, watercraft, as well as non-fuel-intensive transportation. For questions specifically about cars use that tag.

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35 votes
3 answers
4k views

Are electric cars as environmentally friendly as we think they are?

Given the fact that the average lifetime for a car battery is 3 years and all of the batteries end up at a landfill at the end of their lifetime, how sustainable are electric cars in providing a ...
ZZZ's user avatar
  • 701
33 votes
3 answers
873 views

Impact of various travelling options

Are there any objective resources to estimate the ecological impact of various travel alternatives? Sites like Bahn.de offer to calculate it, but they obviously favour trains. I've asked a question on ...
gerrit's user avatar
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44 votes
12 answers
36k views

How effective is turning a car's engine off while standing at a traffic light?

I know some countries enforce having cars automatically shut down the engine when stopping at a traffic light. How much resources are really saved by this process? Does the car need to be ...
Ron Harlev's user avatar
33 votes
7 answers
8k views

Lowest impact transatlantic crossing

What is the lowest-impact regular¹ method to cross the Atlantic Ocean? Specifically, which method has the lowest carbon dioxide equivalent emission per passenger-kilometre? I'm aware there are other ...
gerrit's user avatar
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24 votes
5 answers
2k views

How to determine whether hybrid cars are really more sustainable than traditional cars?

I purchased a Prius many years ago, but many of my friends have put forth claims that the batteries are very toxic and thus I may in fact be creating more harm than good in using a hybrid and that ...
WilliamKF's user avatar
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19 votes
2 answers
553 views

Is buying online more sustainable than in local shop next door?

I was planning to buy a toy. I can buy it online and in local shop next door. Price is (including shipping in case of online shop) more or less the same. Is one more sustainable than the other?
Marian Paździoch's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
6k views

When does using a car's start-stop system become more economical?

In this question it was asked how economic it is to turn your car's engine off when waiting for a traffic light. In the accepted answer it is said that it becomes more economical to turn it off if you ...
THelper's user avatar
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21 votes
4 answers
968 views

How to drive to be the most fuel efficient

I saw a poster at a thruway rest stop once that said something along the lines of accelerating quickly is worse for fuel efficiency and carbon emission than idling for several hours (I don't remember ...
lemontwist's user avatar
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15 votes
2 answers
332 views

Home delivery versus going to stores: how does fuel usage for transport compare? Any studies available?

We see more and more trucks riding through our streets delivering individual items. This hardly looks sustainable. I wonder how the transport footprint compares with the 'old' delivery model of ...
user avatar
24 votes
8 answers
7k views

Is driving an electric car any better than driving a conventional car if electricity is generated with fossil fuel?

Is driving an electric car any better, GHG-wise, than driving a conventional car if 100% of its electricity is generated by fossil fuel combustion? Are there any peer-reviewed studies of that?
Sergey Zolotarev's user avatar
11 votes
8 answers
638 views

How can I make my family understand my CO2-emissions-related hesitation to fly in order to spend time with them?

I live in another country, approximately 2000 miles away from my family. Now, my parents have really hard time understanding the kind of personal sacrifices which are necessary to keep the world a ...
KubaFYI's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
326 views

What is the sustainablity of working from home compared to the office

I'm looking for sources that can give some reasoned arguments about Telecommuting in sustainablity terms - how much of an energy costs in there to working at home compared with commuting X miles in Y ...
Joe's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
252 views

What is the share of global human CO2 emission of cargo transport by ship?

I had an argument how bad global economic trade flows really are. The question was in particular how bad worldwide transports on cargo vessels (containers, ...) are in terms of CO2 production as well ...
NoDataDumpNoContribution's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
240 views

How much of a reduction of carbon emissions can be achieved if a diesel bus is switched out for electric?

My city council has pledged to try and be carbon neutral by 2030 as part of the Global Covenant of Mayors and are investigating ways to achieve that. I'd like to bring forth an idea to replace our ...
Robotnik's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
109 views

Is delivery of mail to house doors by postal services more sustainable than picking up mail from a central location?

Today there exists more than one mail and parcel services to distribute deliveries. I wonder about sustainability effects, especially when you receive several deliveries a day. When everybody has to ...
Salt's user avatar
  • 929
6 votes
1 answer
128 views

How does transportation cost depend on food?

Given that two foods requiring refrigeration have the same weight and volume and are being shipped from one location to another via the same method, how does the environmental impact of that ...
Please stop being evil's user avatar
4 votes
5 answers
88 views

How to prevent pollution caused by a taxi rank? Is there a solution to the 'edging forward' cost of cars in a queue?

I am looking at ways in which a heavily polluting taxi rank near a train station could reduce its pollution footprint. My first thought was that the pollution was mostly down to idling and I am ...
atreeon's user avatar
  • 667
4 votes
2 answers
95 views

Should I use a plastic trash bag for my recycling bin at home or not?

I want to have a recycling bin at home in addition to a trash bin. Should I line my recycling bin with a trash bag and bag it up when it's full to toss in the dumpster's recycling bin? Or should I ...
Pvo's user avatar
  • 141
4 votes
1 answer
130 views

Which countries, regions, or cities have set a date to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles?

This week, the UK announced that sale of gasoline and diesel cars will be banned by 2035. This new policy moves the date up by five years, and also includes hybrid vehicles. From 2035 on, only ...
LShaver's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
94 views

Can Asphalt and concrete be recycled at long term?

Asphalt and concrete are substances where a lot of heavy metals and other materials being hazardous to one's health are being "deposited". But what to do with them when concrete and asphalt have ...
Salt's user avatar
  • 929
3 votes
3 answers
113 views

Does Start / Stop technology in cars have an impact on air quality and by how much?

I have repeatedly heard from various car enthusiasts that start stop technology has no benefit in improving air quality (or the tiniest smallest negligble benefit). Does it have an effect and how much?...
atreeon's user avatar
  • 667