**3. Transport Energy Use per Capita and Modal Energy Consumption**

Table 3 contains all the data on per capita levels of energy use in private and public transport in the ten Swedish cities, along with the modal energy consumption of cars and all public transport modes in each city. Also included are similar data for Freiburg, Germany, and a group of American, Australian, Canadian, European and Asian cities. These patterns are now explained.

#### *3.1. Private Passenger Transport Energy Use per Person*

Sections 3.1 and 3.2 address the first research question in the introduction. The biggest user of passenger transport energy in cities is private transport modes, mainly cars. Table 3 shows the data for the ten Swedish cities, as well as averages for the larger five cities and the smaller five cities and Freiburg as something of a benchmark by which to assess the performance of the Swedish cities, especially the smaller ones.

The annual energy use in private motorized passenger transport in Swedish cities was calculated backward from the comprehensive emissions inventories that exist in Sweden for each municipality [27]. Transport is one of the sectors in these emissions inventories, which is further broken down into its component parts and provides CO2 equivalent emissions (as well as all other transport emissions for each municipality). CO2 emissions were converted to energy use by using relevant conversion factors. The energy use figures here for private passenger transport are thus dependent on the integrity of CO2 emissions accounting by the Swedish government. There was no other direct source of fuel consumption for private transport available in Swedish cities.

Figure 1 shows that the ten Swedish cities in 2015 averaged 15,601 MJ/person, which is virtually the same as the average for the other European cities in 2005 (15,795 MJ). It is close to half the global sample average of 28,301 MJ and dramatically below the American, Australian and Canadian cities (Table 3). In addition, there is hardly any difference here between the averages for the larger and smaller Swedish cities (15,886 MJ cf. 15,317 MJ, respectively). Freiburg consumes 16,488 MJ/person or 8% more than in the smaller Swedish cities (one factor could be the significantly slower average speed of traffic in the denser urban fabric of Freiburg—see later). Only the Asian cities, as a group, have lower energy use per person for private passenger transport (6076 MJ), but they are radically denser than Swedish cities (see later).



#### *Energies* **2020**, *13*, 3719



**Figure 1.** Annual private passenger transport energy use per person in ten Swedish cities (2015), and in American, Australian, Canadian, European and Asian cities (2005–2006).

Uppsala, Stockholm and, interestingly, Umeå consume the least energy, with 12,157, 12,051 and 11,622 MJ/person, respectively. Jönköping and Linköping, which are amongst the least-dense of the Swedish cities, consume the most private transport energy use (21,678 and 18,124 MJ, respectively), which might be expected. However, transport energy use per capita does not relate well, overall, to urban density in Swedish cities, probably due to the very small range in urban densities and other factors in these mostly small cities with short travel distances and high use of non-motorised modes (see Section 4 for these other data on Swedish cities). Overall, Swedish cities in 2015 performed comparatively well against other cities in the world, consuming only moderate quantities of energy in private passenger transport in this very energy-hungry sector. Improvements are, however, always possible through less driving and better technology.
