Sunday 11 February 2018

Buses aren't saving the planet...


One of the usual arguments against suburbs is essentially "cars are bad for the environment". This statisitc - from the USA so data may differ for other places - tells a different story:
The average car on the road consumed 4,700 British thermal units (BTUs) per vehicle mile in 2015, which is almost a 50 percent reduction from 1973, when Americans drove some of the gas-guzzliest cars in history. The average light truck (meaning pick ups, full-sized vans, and SUVs) used about 6,250 BTUs per vehicle mile in 2015, which is also about half what it was in the early 1970s.

By comparison, the average transit bus used 15 percent more BTUs per vehicle mile in 2015 than transit buses did in 1970. Since bus occupancies have declined, BTUs per passenger mile have risen by 63 percent since 1970. While buses once used only about half as much energy per passenger mile as cars, they now use about a third more.
Hmmmm.

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3 comments:

Tim Almond said...

I think we need a serious, rational conversation about this stuff.

As someone pointed out when the government cut subsidy to the Swindon to Oxford direct rail service, it would have been better for the environment, and cheaper to put every passenger in their own taxi. Rail and buses work at busy times, especially when the passenger use is people travelling on their own. At weekends, it's no worse (and perhaps better) for the environment for families to travel by car.

Dr Evil said...

BTUs? LMAO!!!

Anonymous said...

Get rid of those inefficient bus-lanes (full of buses, empty of people) and you'd be amazed how many more people can get to where they need to be more quickly and more 'greenly'.