Travelers enter the departure and arrival location and get instant insight into the price, CO2 emissions and travel time. We also offer insight into parking costs and expected traffic jams. This can be done for a single trip or for multiple trips per week. The Mobility Scan uses information from NS, 9292, Nibud and Milieu Centraal, among others.
Ivo Steffens, commercial director at NS, says: “We want to give a traveler more insight into CO2 emissions and be transparent about the price. Depending on your journey, sometimes the car is cheaper and other times the train. For example, for a return from Utrecht center to Eindhoven center, you see that the train is 4.50 euros cheaper and faster and has much lower CO2 emissions than the car. But if you look at a return from Utrecht center to Lisse, you see that CO2 emissions are the lowest for the train, but the car is 4 euros cheaper and slightly faster.”
Sustainable travel
“What many people do not yet know is that the CO2 gain is very large if you take the train instead of the car,” said Mariken Stolk, Sustainable Mobility expert at Milieu Centraal. “The Mobility Scan makes this climate gain transparent. It's a great tool to raise awareness about the climate impact of a trip among travelers. Milieu Centraal calculated the CO2 emissions per traveler kilometer. Emissions from generating electricity for the train and making and burning fuel for the car are included. In the case of electric trains, we also include the emissions for producing and placing windmills in the calculation. Those windmills provide electricity for the train. Even taking that into account, you save a lot of CO2 by taking the train.”
Compare Prices
The Mobility Scan helps people figure out what is the best choice financially. Gabriella Bettonville, strategic advisor at Nibud: “Nobody wants to pay too much when making a purchase and often people spend hours searching for what the cheapest product is. It's good that there is now also a tool for travel that allows people to get a better idea of the price of the trip, so they can factor this cost in when choosing which mode of transport is most suitable for them.” For car costs, Nibud calculates with averages, which apply to most of the Netherlands. Bettonville says: “The price is based on the variable costs of a gasoline car in the compact class that is less than 10 years old and drives about 10,000 kilometers per year. By variable costs you have to think of fuel, maintenance and repair and depreciation. We calculate with a gasoline car because 80% of motorists in the Netherlands drive a gasoline-powered car. The compact class includes cars such as VW Polo, Audi A1 and a Ford Fiesta.” Insurance costs and motoring tax are not included. At nibud.nl more information can be found on transportation expenditures.
Check out the mobility scan
