Sustainability assessment of modern urban transport and its role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions: A case study of Metro Bus System (MBS), Lahore
Keywords:
Sustainable Development, Sustainable Mobility, GHGs Reduction, Climate Change MitigationAbstract
Climate change is resulting in the gradual rise of the temperature of our planet, and greenhouse gasses (GHGs) are believed to be primarily responsible for the phenomenon. The first part of the paper quantifies emission reduction of greenhouse gases by shifting mode of transport to metro bus Lahore from other vehicles including vans, buses, 3-wheelers and motorcycles. Furthermore, this paper assesses the sustainability of Metro Bus Lahore through a set of specific indicators. A survey was conducted to categorize the passengers according to their modes of travelling before metro bus and travelling distance. Information including fuel type, mileage and average passenger capacity of vehicles were collected for estimation of emission of greenhouse gases. The net amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide avoided were 14242.66, 159.68 and 632.03 tonnes CO2-e, respectively. Total annual amount of GHGs avoided was 15034.38 tonnes CO2-e (59.25%) by metro bus project. It was found that annual emission of GHGs per passenger kilometer reduced to 1.06 kg CO2-e by metro bus from 4.41 kg CO2-e by different vehicles. Amount of total annual fuel avoided was 6574.52 kL. We can affirm that an average sustainability is associated, in general, to Metro Bus Lahore in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability. However, there was need to make planning information and documents available to the public before starting project. It was observed that there was problem for disaster management due to lack of emergency exit plan/route and poor conditions of firefighting equipment. There is need to shift energy source of metro bus from fossil fuels to renewable energy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development.
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