Earlier this year I worked on some charts and maps for a Greenpeace report authored by sustainable transport academic Robin Hickman, exploring the impacts of automobile dependence and the prospects for a post-car world. The report is online here.

The much debated phenomenon of ‘peak-car’ can be observed in many countries in the global north,  in terms of a levelling off of private car use and increases in public transport, as shown in the graphs below. Many theories have been put forward to explain this trend, from the growth and densification of cities, to economic crises, fuel tax changes, to declining car use by younger demographics, and behavioural changes related to the internet. Given the many negative impacts of automobile dependence, from substantial GHG emissions, to air pollution, millions of road deaths annually, and contributions to the global obesity epidemic, clearly this behavioural trend is a great opportunity…