Why leaving the car behind is good for the environment

We’re living in a world where reducing our carbon footprint has never been more important. One of the easiest ways to do this is to reduce the number of times we use our cars, opting instead for public transport.

In the US alone, 27% of greenhouses gases come from transport. This is a staggering figure, which you can help reduce by leaving the car behind a little.

Below, we’ve highlighted why leaving the car behind is a much better idea for individuals and businesses alike.

Greener

Firstly, it’s greener and better for the planet. That’s just a simple fact. The more people that opt to leave a car at home and hop on a bus, train, tram or other form of public transport, the fewer emissions that are pumped into our atmosphere.

Although it may not be as quick and convenient as hopping in the car, private transport contributes a lot to a carbon footprint. With millions of cars on the road, taking as many as possible away, will help clear up the air around us. Obviously, this is about changing habits, so maybe start small and ease your way into it by taking public transport a few times a week, or start with a car share – every little helps after all.

Cheaper

One of the biggest pros of using public transport is, it’s significantly cheaper than taking your own vehicle.

While you’ll have to consistently top up your petrol tank, the price of which increases constantly, which is linked to the consistent use of fossil fuels, a bus or train ticket, when paid for annually, will be much less.

While you may think that driving the car is still cheaper, have you factored in parking? This can be extremely expensive, especially in a city centre if your place of work doesn’t have parking. So, overall, the public transport spend would probably work out cheaper.

Businesses

While those that run businesses may not think it, the consistent use of taxis or single person cars is adding a considerable amount of emissions to the air.

If you have workers that need to go to a meeting, try sending them on the train rather than reimbursing them for their petrol or hiring a taxi or private car.

If there’s a number of people going, minibuses are the perfect solution, which you can hire from places like Allied Fleet, fitting several people into one vehicle, rather than using several smaller ones. This is also very handy for places such as youth clubs and care homes, cutting down costs, the number of modes of transport needed, and carbon footprints whenever multiple people need to travel from place to another.

There are many ways we can reduce our carbon footprint on a daily basis, but, by starting with one of the biggest contributors, we could all do our bit that little bit quicker.