Project title: Steyr, the “Bus”y City of commuters

Team: CO2 busters

BRG Steyr Michaelerplatz   Steyr   Austria   3 Student’s age: 16-17 years old

When is pollution from exhaust gases highest in Steyr? How high is the pollution in Steyr at that time? Which means of transport occur most frequently?
Wann ist die Belastung durch Abgase in Steyr am höchsten? Wie hoch ist die Belastung in Steyr zu diesem Zeitpunkt? Welche Verkehrsmittel kommen am häufigsten vor?

Steyr is located in the conurbation of Upper Austria, which means that many people commute to Steyr every day and therefore the pollution caused by exhaust gases is correspondingly high.
With this project we wanted to show that Steyr makes a high contribution to Upper Austria-wide CO2 emissions, but that other exhaust gases are also strongly present and what consequences this has for people.
On our way to the completion of our projects we encountered complications again and again, but in the end we mastered them all. At the beginning we wanted to do the traffic count with a satellite, but since the resolution was much too bad we decided to do a count on our own. We did this twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon (at commuter rush hours during shift changes).
We also spent a lot of time researching the facts, as some of them were not so easy to find. Finally, we merged facts and our census to come to our results.

Research results CO2 emissions passenger transport:
The average value of CO2 emissions according to NEDC of all new passenger cars was 123.1 g/km. New petrol and diesel passenger cars reach 126.6 g/km.
Only MAN city buses are used in Steyr. The model used as a city bus in Steyr is called “Lion’s City G” and belongs to the Euro 6 emission class. It consumes 43.24 l/100 km. This results in CO2 emissions of 1024 g/km, which is a considerable figure.
This means that in Steyr more than about 8 people (1024:129.8=7.9) would have to travel by bus for it to be more profitable for the environment. 8 cars would emit more CO2 than one city bus in Steyr.
The area of Steyr accounts for 0.03% of the area of Austria.
In Austria, about 12.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions were caused in passenger transport. Therefore, we assume that in Steyr about 416.67 tonnes of CO2 were emitted in passenger transport.
We carried out two traffic counts, each lasting 30 minutes.
Traffic count: between 7:10- 7:40 and 14:05- 14:35.
In both counts we came up with similar results: Cars were in the majority. Buses and trucks were hardly to be seen, and neither were cyclists. In total, 423 cars passed a traffic junction near our school in Steyr within 30 minutes in the morning. In the afternoon there were 441 cars, slightly more.
CO2 emissions for petrol-driven cars were about 121 g/km and for diesel-driven cars 126 g/km, we take the average value 123.5 g/km. This means that the 864 cars in our traffic counts emit a total of 106.704 kg/km of CO2, so we can say that in one hour at the intersection (“HEY! Steyr”) about 106.7 kg of CO2 are emitted.
Even in smaller cities a lot of CO2 is emitted in early morning and afternoon traffic.

To solve this environmental problem, many things must first be changed.
On the one hand, we could rely on public transport. However, they need to be made more attractive so that they are used more often. This can be achieved by expanding the infrastructure to minimise waiting times, but also by cheaper fares. Especially for commuters, the connection of rural areas (Steyr Umland/Ennstal) to the public transport network in the city is still insufficient, especially at times when shift workers would need transport.
However, since buses also emit exhaust gases, a switch to electric buses is necessary in the long term, which should not be a problem since the company “Steyr Automotive” produces its own models. Even with these measures, too many people still drive their own cars. But there is also a solution to this problem, namely electric vehicles. There should be more or better subsidies for electric vehicles and a better infrastructure for charging stations. This should encourage people to buy electric cars.
But ideas such as car sharing and car pooling should also be promoted more strongly, as only switching to electric cars cannot solve all the problems of individual transport, as electric vehicles also ultimately require energy. In the long term, transport options must be used more efficiently by all of us.

Download project poster PDF

Quellen_.pdf

This project was automatically translated into English.
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