Elie: Elie moved page Passenger emissions metrics to Archive:000/Passenger emissions metrics without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor

2024-10-26T20:30:06Z

Elie moved page Passenger emissions metrics to Archive:000/Passenger emissions metrics without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor

← Older revision	Revision as of 16:30, 26 October 2024
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Elie: Created page with "Is it better to travel by car, bus, plane or train? A common approach would be to look at the average "carbon emissions per passenger kilometer" for each mode of transportation. But if we want a fair comparison, we have to make sure they are all calculated the same way: Two ways to calculate: * A. Assume the vehicle is packed with some arbitrary number of people. Divide the vehicle's fuel economy by that number. * B. Look at the total yearly emissions of the {{alt|bus c..."

2023-05-24T01:06:10Z

Created page with "Is it better to travel by car, bus, plane or train? A common approach would be to look at the average "carbon emissions per passenger kilometer" for each mode of transportation. But if we want a fair comparison, we have to make sure they are all calculated the same way: Two ways to calculate: * A. Assume the vehicle is packed with some arbitrary number of people. Divide the vehicle's fuel economy by that number. * B. Look at the total yearly emissions of the {{alt|bus c..."

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Is it better to travel by car, bus, plane or train? A common approach would be to look at the average "carbon emissions per passenger kilometer" for each mode of transportation. But if we want a fair comparison, we have to make sure they are all calculated the same way:

Two ways to calculate:
* A. Assume the vehicle is packed with some arbitrary number of people. Divide the vehicle's fuel economy by that number.
* B. Look at the total yearly emissions of the {{alt|bus company|airline|train system}}, and divide it by the total yearly passenger kilometers traveled by all its customers.

'A' tends to be optimistic. 'B' tends to be realistic or pessimistic. {{x|Note that 'B' can't necessarily be applied to personal car travel, although it can still apply to ''rideshare'' car travel.}}

Why the difference, you ask? Because, for example, a bus full of people can be quite fuel-efficient {{light|(good by 'A')}}, but that doesn't help much if the bus company also has to send a lot of buses that don't often get filled {{light|(bad by 'B')}}.

===Why this matters===

====For informed consumer choices====

I've been trying to get an honest evaluation of which modes of transport are really greener. But if I just compile a table of "carbon emissions per passenger kilometer", there's no guarantee that it's a proper comparison. What if some of the data points were obtained by methodology 'A', and some by methodology 'B'? What if the cited sources{{x|especially ones that are easy to find, such as news articles}}don't specify (nor give enough clues to determine) which methodology was used? Or{{x|for proper academic sources}}what if the methodology is hidden behind a paywall?

====For systemic changes====

It's possible that {{alt|bus|train|air}} travel companies could save a huge amount of carbon emissions by not servicing low-traffic areas or hours.

This of course would be terrible customer service. It also might even go against government policy in some countries. But if the status-quo carbon emissions are bad enough, maybe the companies should just do it anyway (first lobbying to change whatever policies get in the way). Even if all the customers lost{{x|most of which are rich or middle-class, by the way; with some exceptions}}would travel by car instead, maybe the overall carbon emissions would still be less. We'll never know unless we gather the numbers that matter.

==See also==
* [[Air travel]]
* [[Public transit]]

Archive:000/Passenger emissions metrics - Revision history

Elie: Elie moved page Passenger emissions metrics to Archive:000/Passenger emissions metrics without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor