Metros Cut Car Use in European Cities, but Trams Fall Short
European cities with metro systems report far fewer car trips than cities that rely solely on trams or have no rail-based public transport. This conclusion comes from new research by the Complexity Science Hub (CSH), recently published in Nature Cities.
Study Overview
CSH researcher Rafael Prieto-Curiel analyzed mobility data from about 400 European cities. The study examined how people travel daily across three modes of transportation: active mobility (walking and cycling), public transport (metro, tram, bus), and motorized individual transport (car, taxi, motorcycle, ride-hailing).
“I looked at 47 cities with a metro, 46 cities with a tram but no metro, and 285 cities without both,” said Prieto-Curiel.
The researcher used an expanded dataset that he developed in earlier work, accessible via the interactive project Cities Moving.
Key Findings
- In cities with a metro, car trips account for about 37% of total travel.
- In cities with only trams, the share rises to 50%.
- In cities without any rail system, car travel reaches around 54%.
“This means that, on average, people in cities without a metro make almost one and a half times as many car trips per capita as those in cities with a metro,” explained Prieto-Curiel.
Public transport usage also differs sharply: residents in metro cities make about 35% of their trips using public transport, compared to 21% in tram cities and only 16% in cities lacking rail systems.
Author’s Summary
European cities with metro networks see substantially lower car use and greater public transport reliance, highlighting their critical role in greener urban mobility strategies.