Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

Beyond the inconvenience increased traffic congestion means for drivers and a certain
economic wastefulness, it also creates an environment that is hostile to other means of
transportation. As streets become more crowded with cars, they become more
dangerous for people who walk or bike, in effect creating pressure for them to drive,
too. Clearly, not everyone in our community is going to use a bus or coach service to
get from place to place. But that does not make the benefits of a bus or coach service
to the community any less real.
Taxi Operations
One important misconception to nail at the outset is that taxi transport is in some way
merely an extension of private car transport. On the contrary, for us, like car sharing
schemes, taxi transport is part of the solution not part of the problem. In many towns
and cities private hire provision, a discrete segment of overall taxi operations, has
actually replaced the former public transport provision of the former publicly-owned
bus sector.
As for the contribution of taxi provision to the total GGE in the UK in comparison to
the transport sector total contribution, between 1990 and 2006, emissions from taxi
operations increased from 0.20 per cent of total GGE to 0.34 per cent. During the
same period total GGE from the transport sector increased from 7.75 per cent to 12.8
per cent. Taxi operations GGE are a minimal part of the overall UK GGE levels and
in the past 17 years they have only increased marginally. 69
EA Economic Sector 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Code
Taxis operations as a % of 0.20% 0.31% 0.31% 0.32% 0.32% 0.32% 0.33% 0.34%
total UK emissions
Transport sector as a % of
total UK emissions
7.75% 11.3% 11.8% 12.2% 12.5% 13.2% 13.5% 12.8%
Table 4.3: Taxi operations and their contribution to the total GGE
In real terms, taxi operations total GGE has increased from 1,599 thousand tonnes of
CO 2 equivalent in 1990 to 2,464 in 2006, an increase of 54.1 per cent. Whereas the
transport sector total GGE has increased from 62,753 thousand tonnes of CO 2
equivalent in 1990 to 92,869 in 2006, an increase of 48 per cent. So taxi operations
have increased at a greater rate in percentage terms in comparison to the overall
transport sector which has also seen a marked increase. 70
In 2006 taxi operations accounted for 2.7 per cent of the total GGE of the transport
sector, while in 1990 it accounted for 2.5 per cent of the total GGE of the transport
sector. So the contribution of taxi operations to the transport sector total GGE has
increased by 0.2 per cent in the last 17 years. 71
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