Jesse Mullan

Would Somebody Check My Math, Please?

Written on Wednesday, the 28^th of June, 2006 at 12:07 am and was filed under: Diversions

I was doing a little research because I’m a big nerd and I found some interesting stats for nationwide bus-based transit.

Diesel Fuel Consumed (gallons)

550,466,000

Other Fuel Consumed (gallons)

131,356,000

Total Fuel Consumption (gallons)

681,356,000

Miles, Passenger

21,376,973,000

Passenger Miles Per Gallon

31.4

Miles, Vehicle Total

2,470,991,000

Total Bus Miles Per Gallon

3.6

Oh, I left out the electric stuff. Hmm. The amount of energy involved is four or five orders of magnitude less, so the final number comes out the same.

Electricity Consumed (kwh)

2,399,000

1 kilowatt-hour

3414 BTUs

1 gallon diesel

139,200 BTU

Equivalent diesel (gallons)

58,803

Total Fuel Consumption (gallons)

681,414,803

Passenger Miles Per Gallon

31.4

Of course, these numbers can only be improved by hybrids and increased ridership. It would be interesting to see these numbers for smaller samples — how does a really busy line compare? If the 16 is full all day long, what is the mileage per passenger?