•This study quantifies carbon private transport emissions in rural and urban settings.•A low developed rural area shows a less pollutant transportation pattern than the selected urban area.•This study provides specific emissions for seven private transportation type during the life cycle.•This research provides better understanding for policymakers to boost sustainable private transportation. The current fossil fuel-based passenger transport model does not correspond to the specific characteristics of the different urban and rural realities, so the shift to sustainable transport needs to be performed by understanding the particularities of each case. Thus, the goal of this research has been to comprehensively clarify the differences between urban and rural settings when estimating and comparing life-cycle carbon emissions from private transportation systems. From the Colombian region of Tolima, we have selected for analysis the municipalities of Ibagué and Venadillo as urban and rural areas, respectively. Private transportation systems have been modelled through a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) that allowed us to obtain the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of gasoline, diesel and electric cars, electric and fuel-based motorcycles and electric and conventional bikes. The results show that, on average, emissions from the analysed urban area (140 g CO2-eq·pkm−1) are 23% higher than those of the rural case study (110 g CO2-eq·pkm−1). This article concludes that, if the average travelled distance and number of per-day trips are taken into account, great differences are striking: for the capital city of Tolima, the average daily emissions per passenger (2,000 g CO2-eq·p−1·day−1) is 120% higher than that of the rural area. Display omitted