Taking a taxi can be greener than riding public transportation.
Disagree? Hear me out.
In Juneau, Alaska, Kimberly, my parents, and I disembarked our cruise ship, the ms Ryndam, with the intent of taking the public bus to the Mendenhall Glacier (a glacier in Tongass National Park Forest). All the guidebooks indicate that you can take the public bus to the glacier for $1.50 each way. We asked the local tourist information center where to catch the bus and the woman informed us that the bus would drop us a mile and a half from the glacier. Considering the limited amount of time we had, walking 3 miles just to get from the bus stop to the glacier wasn’t an option. The information booth employee gave another option: we could take a charter bus for $7.00 per person each way. Or we could take a taxi cab for about $32 total.
As there were 4 of us, the taxi cab was only about $1 more per person; so we took the cab (that clearly operates solely for tourists: Mendenhall Glacier Cab Company).
Here’s why taking a cab was greener than the bus:
- Support Local Business. We supported a small local taxi company and the cab driver (whom are often considered sole proprietors).
- Get a Local’s Perspective. The cab driver gave us his perspective not just on Juneau, but also politics and the economy.
- Learn Insider Tips and Tricks. Our cab driver provided a wealth of information about local wildlife including where to spot black bears (in trees). When we got to the glacier, he even got out of the cab and walked around with us for 10 minutes and pointed out spots where you can see salmon (during spawning season) and black bears (usually eating the salmon). Plus, he had some great stories. Our cab driver on the way back was a little crazy, so she was entertaining for an entirely different reason.
- Enjoy the Local Environment Longer Than Everyone Else. Because we took a cab, we also beat out the buses full of tourists by nearly 30 minutes. This gave us more time to explore the park and glacier – and gets some photos without someone else’s head as the backdrop.
For me, the local experience of the cab was worth not only the extra dollar, but the extra carbon output. It’s definitely not always the case, and our regular readers know we’re huge fans of public transportation. But sometimes riding in a cab makes your trip a little greener.
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Interesting post, but I have to (respectfully) disagree.
Depending on the type of public transit, it seems like a taxi would be inevitably more polluting.
Think of it this way – you could probably fit 80 tourists on one bus or in 20 taxis (4 people per taxi).
Realistically, most of the time you’ll have less than 4 people per taxi. Here in NYC, I’m guessing the average is 1-2 people per taxi. But let’s assume 3 people per taxi. That means you’d still need more than 25 taxis to carry 80 tourists.
Or 1 bus.
And many buses are now going hybrid, using either electric or compressed natural gas.
All the other points you mentioned are pretty much valid. You might have a faster and more enjoyable and more informative trip taking a taxi, but it won’t be greener.
Also, on public transit, you can meet many locals who might be willing to give you advice on their community simple as a goodwill gesture rather than because they’re hoping for a bigger tip.
By the way, since you and your readers are interested in eco-travel, you might like to check out this new post I’ve just added to my green products website covering four ecotourism options –
http://1greenproduct.com/2008/07/travel-conrad-chicago-ireland-greenbox.html
Hope you find it interesting!
- Aaron Dalton, 1GreenProduct.com
I appreciate the attention extreme green folks bring to the issue recently, but as your post points out brilliantly, there is a point of diminishing return for some efforts. If it’s difficult, the average person is not going to do it. I figure 80% of us doing what we can is better than perfectionism and eco-fatigue.
PS The question for me is, “Greener than what?” Maybe the cab wasn’t greener than a bus, but it was greener than renting a car.
The fact that you piled four people into a taxi instead of taking a cruise shuttle bus that sometimes doesn’t carry any more people than that on tourism runs around Juneau, or a city bus that almost always runs at far less than capacity (and whose schedule is not that conducive for transporting touring visitors around town)probably did save some carbon emmissions.
By the way, the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center is on the Tongass National Forest, not Park, and it is the oldest visitor’s center in the Forest Service. Hope you enjoyed the exhibits and the knowledgeable staff when you visited.
Ray Massey, Alaska Region Forest Service
@Ray- Thanks for the correction!!