Are Buses Bad for the Environment?
Posted by Max Dunn Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:05:00 GMT
It is common knowledge that buses are energy efficient, right? I mean shouldn’t we all ride the bus rather than drive a car? Well a study looked at this more closely and found out something interesting. Here are some figures for passenger miles per gallon (PMPG) for various forms of transportation:
- Light rail – 120 PMPG
- Trolley bus – 104 PMPG
- Commuter rail – 86 PMPG
- Intercity rail – 66 PMPG
- Car, average trip – 44 PMPG
- Transit bus – 33 PMPG
Wow, look at that: city buses only get about 33 PMPG – this is even less than a normal car with 2 people which gets 44 PMPG! I guess to be more green, we should all avoid the bus and drive our cars instead. :-)
Reference: Comparison of Energy Use & CO2 Emissions From Different Transportation Modes