How to Fight Climate Change with Open Traffic Data?

Climate change is a proven fact. Global warming has caused serious changes to the planet, such as rising sea levels, extreme weather events, deforestation, disappearance of species. But, as individuals or organizations, we can slow down global warming by implementing more sustainable actions within our community.

According to Sitra (https://www.sitra.fi/en/articles/carbon-footprint-average-finn/), approximately 29% of the carbon footprint of the average Finn is caused by transport and tourism.

Figure 1. Carbon footprint of the Average Finn (Source Sitra).

Of the 3000 kg caused by transportation, 2240kg (75%) is caused by passenger cars.

Figure 2. Carbon Footprint of the Average Finn - Transportation related carbon footrpint (Source: Sitra)

Depending on the mode of transport, the carbon footprint per km varies heavily.

Figure 3. Carbon footprints of modes of transport in Finland (Source: Sitra).

Needless to say, if we want to meet the Finnish government Climate Change Plan to 2030 (https://www.ym.fi/en-US/The_environment/Climate_and_air/Mitigation_of_climate_change/National_climate_policy/Climate_Change_Plan_2030) targets of having the emissions from transport compared to the levels in 2005, we need to significantly change how much and how we move people and goods in Finland.

Despite the talks, there has been very little change in the market shares of modes of transports in Finland.

Figure 4. Traffic Mode market shares in Finland by traveled kilometers - people transport.

?No Silver Bullet

Personally I do not believe there is a silver bullet for this, but we need to work on several fronts.

• The emissions are to be reduced by replacing fossil fuels with new low-emission alternatives
• We can also improve the energy-efficiency of vehicles and transport systems.
• Cycling and walking are promoted through joint programmes of the state and local governments.
• Transport systems in urban areas are developed through land use, transport and housing agreements (MAL), infill building is promoted, and jobs and services are steered to traffic nodes.
• We need to significantly increase the amount of remote work possibilities through existing technologies and future possibilities like AR & VR. (Please see figure 5).
• We need to promote better ride sharing and car pooling.
• ... and number of other things

Figure 5. Where Europeans Get to Work from Home (Source: Eurostat)

More carrot than the stick – Open Data to rescue

I believe we need to provide more carrot than the stick to help the transition to less carbon footprint. The key enabler for the change is open data.

We need to ensure that multi-modal people travel and logistics chain work so that trips and be combined and optimized. In order to make the travel smoother, safer and less polluting, full visibility for nation wide traffic situation, public transport time tables, routes, bus&train location etc need to be enabled in order to make the public transport a compelling alternative for private car. To enable better ride sharing and car pooling, more innovations and needed.

Figure 6. Kyydit.net - example of a ride sharing site in Finland.

In Finland, we have plenty of great examples of what can be achieved with the help of traffic open data – here just a few examples:

• Digitraffic (https://www.digitraffic.fi) is a service operated by Traffic Management Finland offering real time traffic information. Currently the service covers information about road, rail and marine traffic. The information is open data, which is distributed through open APIs.
• Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL) offers open data both as interface services and data packages (https://www.hsl.fi/en/opendata) including e.g. Journey Planner APIs, Public transport network and timetables, City bike trips and many more.
• Matkahuolto (https://www.matkahuolto.fi/corporate-customers/interfaces) has interfaces for linking online store applications to Matkahuolto’s data system via the XML interface.

Combining open data with personal, shared, or crowd sourced data is vital for the realization of further growth of the open traffic data market.

In Summary

By reducing the both the total kms (reduction in traveled kms through remote work, car pooling etc.)) and the carbon footprint / km (removal of fossil fuels, transition to public transport & bicycling, intelligent traffic management etc.)?we can all make a difference. Choose to walk, bike, or take the bus – leave the car at home, and you’ll be making an easy decision with immediate results.