What is the carbon footprint of a bus, a bicycle... and a walk?

The means of transport in the city are changing. Electric bicycles appear; streetcars are reborn from their ashes; cargo bikes are on the rise. But what is the carbon footprint of active and collective modes of transport as well as electric micromobility? What principles guide the transition to the lowest possible carbon urban transport? Author: Alexis Riopel. Anne de Bortoli, a postdoctoral researcher at the International Reference Center for Life Cycle Analysis and Sustainable Transition (CIRAIG) at Polytechnique Montréal, is studying exactly these questions.

Specifically: to calculate the total carbon footprint of the mode of transport, it is necessary to take into account the gasoline and electricity consumed by its engine, but also the production of vehicles, their import, the construction of roads and rails, charging. stations, extracting raw materials and treating all this mess at the end of its life. (Alexis Riopel)