Mobiscore: MCube launches full cost calculator for means of transport - Bicycle far ahead

The Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (MCube) at the Technical University has launched a full cost calculator for the costs of various means of transportation as part of the SASIM (Smart Advisor for Sustainable Integrated Mobility) project with the mobiscore. This also creates transparency about the so-called "external costs" incurred by the environment and society when using different transportation instruments, whereby external costs can also be positive if, for example, increased cycling relieves the healthcare system or improves air quality. However, the health costs of cycling are comparatively high because of the higher potential for accidents. This, in turn, should make policymakers think about creating safe cycling infrastructure.

"Our goal is to present and communicate the true costs of urban traffic. We want to raise awareness of the costs that our mobility triggers. With this, we want to promote sustainable and fair mobility behavior," explain those responsible, including research director Julia Kinigadner from TU Munich.

The status quo is that the costs of mobility behavior are not fairly distributed. Currently, one only pays for the internal costs that are incurred by oneself, but not for the external costs that are incurred by society or the environment, the scientists argue.

Mobility Traffic Light

In the online tool, which runs as a prototype, individual routes can be entered, and the respective means of transport can be selected, such as a bicycle and e-bike, public transport, or a car as well as an e-car. Sharing can also be adjusted as an option. Based on a scale from A to F, modeled after efficiency classes or the food Nutri-Score, one's own choice can be quickly classified, like on the food traffic light.

Affordable and Eco-Friendly by Bike or Pedelec

The results are particularly interesting with regard to the external costs, which are significantly higher for cars than for public transport and bicycles. The muscle-powered "bio-bike" is, for an exemplary commute distance of 14 kilometers from south to north through Munich, by far the cheapest means of transport at 1.09 euros per ride, with the e-bike costing only 1.46 euros. Using a combustion engine car would incur full costs of 3.41 euros, which fall to 2.75 euros with a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle).

Public Transport Suffers from Expensive Tickets

The public transport is dramatically more expensive at 4.74 euros for the journey, even though in external costs it would be only ten cents more expensive at 0.84 euros than the bicycle. However, the ticket alone significantly impacts the budget with 3.90 euros. The highest external costs are with the combustion engine car at 1.85, while a BEV would be slightly better at 1.65. The personal costs for the combustion engine are also high at 1.56 euros, whereas for the BEV they are only 1.10 euros. For the e-bike, the external costs would be 0.90 euros. A shared car would come out as the most expensive at 10.23 euros in personal costs and 12.07 in total costs.

In terms of time, under - albeit rare - ideal conditions in Munich, the car with 33 minutes would be the fastest mode of transport, followed by the bicycle at 44 minutes. The slowest is public transport with 46 minutes, even though this route includes a significant portion of the subway.