Page 396 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 6

Watson, Inara. Amer, Ali. Bayyati, Ali.

& Haq, 2003c). It was estimated that each car takes 200m² of land. Similar data comes from
Switzerland, where it is estimated that the average of land taken by each vehicle is 113m ,
²
but the land allocated for housing and gardening is only 20-25m per person. Land covered
²
by asphalt is lost to nature, it has affected the behaviour of groundwater and it breaks down
ecological relationships with impact on fauna and flora.

Figure 3.1. Comparison of different modes of passenger travel (Source: Adapted from (Whitelee & Haq, 2003d), where:
Land use is measured in m²/person, Energy- in grams of coal/pass.km, CO₂-grams/pass.km

It was calculated that lorries require around three time more space than trains to do the same
work. Each passenger travelling by car uses 120m² land, by trains 7m² land, and by bus 12m land.
²
The amount of land that has been taken depends on which mode of transport is used. Also, there
is a need to consider the secondary land taking. This means that in addition to the land allocated
for railways there is a need to add areas that provide the raw materials needed to build railways
and rail infrastructure, and manufacturing areas to produce steel and concrete.
In 2014, in the UK 35.6 million cars have been registered (www.gov.uk, 2015), and with the in-
creasing number of cars on roads and the increasing number of trips, the total amount of land
taken by cars will also increase. Between 1990 and 1996, around 10ha of land each day was taken
to build new motorways in the EU. Roads are the biggest land consumer in EU (EEA, 2016a).

Figure 3.2 Total land-use by transport infrastructure in selected countries in 1996 (Source: EEA, 2016b)

394 360.revista de alta velocidad