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Page added on January 18, 2014
Planes, Trains, & Pretty Much Everything Else More Efficient Than Cars
A new report released by a research professor at the University of Michigan Research Institute looking at data collected from 1970 to 2010 has shown that pretty much every form of transportation is more efficient than the good old-fashioned light-duty vehicle.
Michael Sivak examined recent trends to determine the energy needed to transport a single person a given distance in a light-duty vehicle — ie, cars, SUVs, pickups, and vans — or on a scheduled airline flight. His analysis was measured in BTU per person mile from 1970 to 2010, and found that the entire fleet of light-duty vehicles would need to improve their miles per gallon efficiency from 21.5 to 33.8, or increase their vehicle load from 1.38 persons to at least 2.3 persons to come anywhere near flight.
“It would not be easy to achieve either of these two changes,” Sivak said. “Although fuel economy of new vehicles is continuously improving, and these changes are likely to accelerate given the new corporate average fuel economy standards, changes in fuel economy take a long time to substantially influence the fuel economy of the entire fleet — it takes a long time to turn over the fleet.”
Why will it take so long to turn over that fleet? Looking at light-duty vehicles sold in 2012, the 14.5 million vehicles only amounted to 6% of teh entire fleet of light vehicles on the road.
“A historical perspective illustrates the daunting task,” he said. “An improvement of at least 57 percent in vehicle fuel economy of the entire fleet of light-duty vehicles would be required, but from 1970 to 2010, vehicle fuel economy improved by only 65 percent.”
“It is important to recognize that the energy intensity of flying will continue to improve,” Sivak said. “Because the future energy intensity of flying will be better than it currently is, the calculations underestimate the improvements that need to be achieved in order for driving to be less energy-intensive than flying.”
All in all, it’s relatively unsurprising that cars are as inefficient as they are. Sivak’s analysis found that, in 2010, BTU per person mile was 4,218 for driving versus 2,691 for flying, and then Amtrak trains (1,668), motorcycles (2,675) and transit buses (3,347).
10 Comments on "Planes, Trains, & Pretty Much Everything Else More Efficient Than Cars"
rollin on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 1:51 pm
I would like to see the actual study which is not listed or even named here.
Planes and cars are going to be the most efficient and cost effective means of travel. Trains need extremely expensive infrastructure additions as well as being near their limits of efficiency.
If you chose a car that gets 35 mpg on the highway, you have a vehicle that is far more efficient than passenger trains.
Dwight Eichorn on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 2:43 pm
Wondering how airplanes would fare in this study if only 1/5 of the seats were occupied? Duh; The reason so many cars on the road still have only one person on board has to do with the relative cheap price of gas.
penury on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 3:34 pm
Statistics like hyperbole exist to enable people to present flights of fantasy as perhaps being of some use. This article makes no real sense and the person presenting it should be ashamed. If you really like comparing a trip to downtown with a airplane ride lets see an article showing how much more efficient a bow and arrow is over a Hellfire missile. It should be real simple.
baptised on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 4:08 pm
And the plane is going to land in your driveway?
rollin on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 4:22 pm
Great point, baptised. I doubt if I will be taking a plane or train to the farm or the grocery store anytime soon.
rockman on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 5:10 pm
Rollin – I don’t understand why they didn’t take it all the way to the logical end: bicycles are far more fuel efficient: how many miles per Big Mac can one get?
J-Gav on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 5:59 pm
Definitely some skewed methodology in this article. It all depends, as baptised hints, on what you’re using the transportation for … If you’re moving your carcass from NY to Boston, a train’s efficient. If you’re moving goods from the East Coast to a factory a hundred miles outside of Chicago, chances are you’re going to need a road-boost whether it’s initially by train or plane.
DC on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 7:13 pm
Reality check. Neither Cars or Planes are ‘efficient’ no matter what measure is employed. Well, for planes perhaps time, but a jets ‘time’ efficiency’ is paid for with its hideous low energy efficiency. There are no free lunches. Lifting a person againsts the earths gravity and keeping them suspended there is always going to be the lest efficient way to move anything. Likewise using a 5000 pound GM garbage cans to move one obese amerikan from one red light to the next at 30kph will never be ‘efficient’ either.
Time to let go of the quaint myth that marginal improvements in the ‘efficiency’ of gas-burning trash cans, or jets for that matter, will have anything more than a cosmetic effect on total fuel use. It wont delay or mitigate PO in the slightest.
Cars as it turns out, are industrial capitalism cash cow. This is not a bug-but a feature. Cars inherent IN-efficiency, is what makes them so profitable and beloved by our corporate overlords. Bikes, mass-transit, high-density, multi-use zoning, walkable cities ALL have far less scope for wealth extraction. This explains why such things are so hard to find in Carporate North America. Cars are profitable in ways bikes and mass-tranist never will be. Put another way, bikes and trains are TOO efficient, they provide too much service for too little ‘investment’.
CT is still a joke of a website. There is nothing ‘clean’ about cars or jets, something CT would do well to acknowledge. CT can bloviate all they want about ‘efficient’ 5000 pound grocery fetchers and planet wreckers-but lets stop fooling ourselves here.
Kenz300 on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 7:28 pm
Buy a bicycle, walk or use mass transit……….
Get some exercise, stay fit and be healthy.
Cities need to become more people friendly and less auto friendly.
David Schroeder on Sat, 18th Jan 2014 8:35 pm
It should be noted that the BTU per passenger mile efficiency leader could be gas motor assisted bicycles. If 10% ethanol gas has 112,607 BTU’s per gallon and it propels the bike 140 miles (about 28 mph), that would be 804 BTU’s per mile driven. Double the efficiency of trains. Higher transportation speeds come at price both the economy and to the environment.