Bettembourg, Bissen, Contern, Esch-sur-Alzette, Ettelbruck, Schuttrange, Strassen, Sanem, Luxembourg and Weiler-la-Tour: ten Luxembourg cities are among the 1,956 European cities taking part in the 23rd edition of European Mobility Week, which runs from 16 to 22 September. To mark the occasion, Eurostat has published a analysing the most commonly used means of transport in Europe.

To do this, the European Union’s statistical office used the passenger-kilometre indicator, which measures the share of each mode of transport in total journeys, based on the distance travelled per passenger. In simple terms, one passenger-kilometre corresponds to one passenger having travelled one kilometre. The share of a particular mode of transport is then calculated by dividing the passenger-kilometres travelled by that mode of transport by the total passenger-kilometres travelled by all modes of transport.

And unsurprisingly, the car is the main means of transport used in all European countries. Luxembourg is no exception, with 75.7% of distances travelled by car in 2022 (the latest data available in the study). This figure is down on previous years--82.8% in 2021 and 83.6% in 2020--illustrating a certain ecological awareness that is beginning to take precedence over the convenience of the car. While Luxembourg is behind Lithuania, where 87.9% of journeys are made by car, it is still above the European average (72.2%).

Buses lead the way, trains lag behind

The drop in car use may be explained--in addition to environmental reasons--, which has probably encouraged more people to use it.

But it’s not the only motivating factor: the national statistics bureau , concluding that “the expected positive effect of the introduction of free transport did not materialise in either the second or third quarter.” These results did not live up to expectations, at least not immediately, partly because of the covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted the habits of many citizens and led to a reduction in the use of public transport. In 2022, 11.7% of journeys were made by bus, putting Luxembourg in fifth place in Europe, behind Malta, Ireland, Hungary and Cyprus.

Trains are struggling to find their place, accounting for just 3.7% of distances travelled. By contrast, the tram, which was not included in this study, recorded 842,891 boardings and alightings at the station in January 2023, compared with 347,943 the previous year, according to . These figures bear witness to the growing success of the tram, whose recent extensions--and those to come--continue to attract new users.

An ecological success story? It remains to be seen whether these new passengers are new users of soft mobility or whether they are simply replacing journeys already made by soft mobility.

Take the example of people who, before the arrival of the tram, walked between the central train station and Place de Paris to get to work. Now they may use the tram to cover those few hundred metres. In this case, the impact on the reduction in CO2 emissions is zero--or even negative if the emissions linked to the production of the tram are taken into account--since they were walking before.

An encouraging but insufficient record

Croatia dominates the ranking of distances travelled by boat (2.5%)--from which Luxembourg is naturally absent. The country bordering the Adriatic Sea also leads the way in air travel, with 40.4% of distances travelled by air, well ahead of Bulgaria, which comes second with 25.9%. In Luxembourg, 8.9% of distances are covered by air, below the European average of 13.1%.

The results are encouraging, with a clear reduction in car use, but the proportion is still too high. The trend towards greater use of public transport must be strengthened if we are to meet the two major challenges facing mobility in the years ahead: improving sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint, while easing congestion on increasingly saturated roads.

This article was originally published in .