[VegChat] Public Transit?

[kingofthebongo at canada.com]

This is in response to an old message, but it's been bugging
me so I have to respond.  

> Consider,
> 
> An O.C. transpo Bus uses approximately 150 liters of
> diesel fuel per  hundred kilometers travelled. The average
> number of passengers carried  throughout the day on a O.C.
> transpo bus is 15.
> 
> This gives an average fuel consumption for the bus fleet
> of 10 liters of  deisel per hundred kilometers for every
> passenger.


Where do you get your facts from, David?  According to
Transport Canada's "Motor Vehicle and Fleet Characteristics"
survey in 2000, buses consume on average 32.5 litres of fuel
per 100 km.  I didn't find data on # of passengers, but
assuming it's 15, that would be an average consumption of
2.2 litres of fuel per 100 km for each passenger.


> 
> Compare this to a the new small car such as the Toyota
> Echo or Honda  Civic which use about 5 liters per hundred
> kilometers.


Actually, the Echo consumes about 6.7 litres per 100 km in
the city.  So you only need an average of 5 passengers per
bus to make buses a better option than a Toyota Echo.  And
what's more, the more passengers that take the bus, the more
environmentally friendly the bus system becomes.

> 
> More than this even, is that the new passenger cars have
> emissions  control and pollute very little, while the bus
> has no pollution controls  what so ever and causes air
> pollution equal too several hundred Honda's.

It's completely untrue that "the bus has no pollution
controls whatsoever"; emissions from buses are regulated
under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act just as cars
are.  And their emissions do not equal "several hundred
Hondas"; by regulation, a bus's emissions are equal to just
under three cars.  Which makes the bus by far the best
option for environmentally conscious people.

Ken



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