How HOVER is good for the planet

HOVER (High Occupancy Vehicles in Express Routes) is targeted at Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) drivers. If SOV drivers start to share rides with other SOV drivers, the fuel they consume, collectively, will be reduced. Using less fuel will also lead to less emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. But the benefits don’t stop there.

Every time a fuller car is formed it takes two or three other cars out of the congested traffic. As a result all the other traffic moves a little more freely. Auckland Regional Council modeled the impact of removing 5,000 cars from Auckland’s traffic in this way (we provided the origins and destinations of 5000 vehicles we think HOVER will remove from Auckland’s traffic). Based on their results, we calculate that for every litre of fuel the participants avoid using, the wider community will save a further nine litres through more freely flowing traffic. In total, our 5,000 vehicles, parked in HOVER PARKS, would save the Auckland Region about 0.7 PJ of energy per year, resulting in 50,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide being spewed into the atmosphere.