How is Public Transport Beneficial?

Written By Teacher: Elizabeth Ward

My name is Elizabeth Ward. I am a former Early Childhood, Elementary, and English as a Foreign Language educator. I have taught third grade Science and Social Studies as well as Kindergarten in both urban and rural Oklahoma public schools. I taught online EFL to students of all ages in China for four years. I also have experience in curriculum development and content design for teachers in the physical and digital classroom. As a former teacher I have a passion for supporting teachers and making their jobs easier. I currently live in the greater Houston area with my husband and four dogs. 

Teaching about public transportation’s impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is both valuable and challenging. Many students may not realize how much transportation contributes to climate change, or why public transit is often more efficient than driving. As teachers, we can help students see the big picture: how personal choices affect the environment. Consider an interdisciplinary approach with lessons like Comparing Travel Emissions. This topic also encourages them to think critically about city planning and how communities can be designed to make sustainable options easier for everyone. This lesson about Nature Cities can be a starting point for these discussions with young students. 

Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.

Public transportation gets people where they’re going while emitting far fewer climate-warming greenhouse gases than private cars. The reason is simple efficiency: while cars usually carry just one or two people at a time, a bus can carry 50 or more, and a train in a large city may carry thousands.

Since transportation creates more than a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, shifting people from cars to public transit can do a lot to lower our impact on the climate. But people will only choose public transportation when it is their most convenient option for getting around.

Thinking about how we use street space

Public transportation works best where lots of people live and work. A train or subway line is a big investment, and only makes economic sense if it attracts plenty of riders. Buses need less infrastructure and can pencil out in smaller towns and less-dense neighborhoods, but still need a steady flow of users to run cost-effectively.

Unsurprisingly, this means public transportation is most popular in and around cities. But it also means choices about land use have a big effect on public transit. To grow ridership, cities and towns need to allow, and encourage, abundant housing and businesses near train and bus stops, a practice called “transit-oriented development.”