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Transit systems, on average, are only mildly greener than cars. City buses, in fact, use the same energy per passenger mile as typical cars. Light rail is somet
by cperciva 12y ago
Transit systems, on average, are only mildly greener than cars. City buses, in fact, use the same energy per passenger mile as typical cars. Light rail is sometimes 2 and rarely even 3 times better than cars, but in some cities like San Jose, it uses almost twice as much energy per actual passenger than passenger cars do..
This would be true if buses and light rail all ran on gasoline, but many don't. In Vancouver, the light rail system is entirely electric, as are about 1/3 of the buses.
- lazyant 12y agoElectrical cars/buses may be less green than gas vehicles since electricity may come from a very "dirty" source. For example in the US more than 1/3 of the energy comes from coal power plants, which surely have caused more cancer deaths than all nuclear accidents put together [citation needed]
- arcadius 12y agoIt certainly depends on where you are. In Seattle, we get 90% of our power from hydroelectric, and almost all of the remaining 10% from either nuclear or wind. I wonder what the comparison between cities with electric transportation services and without, and their respective power supplies would show.
- cperciva 12y agoTrue. In Vancouver we're almost 100% hydroelectric.
- j2kun 12y agoDoes congestion account for this quote at all? If we double the amount of bus usage we half the amount of cars, and people spend less time in stop and go traffic (which is the most inefficient use of gasoline…right?).
- collyw 12y agoIs that a full car or a single driver in one?