Autos save energy

unPC Berkeley: “Autos Save Energy”

Transit enthusiasts often extol the energy efficiency of transit as compared with the car. Used to be true but no longer. Turns out the awful auto has been steadily becoming more fuel efficient while transit has become the gas-guzzler. Now according to estimates made at Berkeley’s University of California Transportation Center automobiles are on average more economical in fuel than either buses or rail transit.

Look at the numbers by Sharon Sarmiento in the Spring 1996 issue of ACCESS magazine from UC-Berkeley:

BTU per passenger mile

Autos

Buses

Transit rail

1980

4,782

2,813

3,008

1993

3,593

4,374

3,687

Transit’s problem, according to Berkeley, is two-fold: it has been loading up its vehicles with extra equipment (wheelchair lifts, larger airconditioners etc) increasing fuel consumption at the same time that ridership has been falling away. Transit has been moving more empty seats around. Sarmiento asks: “Should government now encourage people to use cars to save energy?”