Why is a bus more energy efficient than a car?

An average transit bus can fit up to 42 people, which means a full bus can remove 42 single-passenger cars from the road during a commute. A handful of full buses running every 15 minutes or so along one commute route can take up to 168 cars off the road each hour, including those cars' emissions!



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Public transportation gets people where they're going while emitting far fewer climate-warming greenhouse gases than private cars. The reason is simple efficiency: while cars usually carry just one or two people at a time, a bus can carry 50 or more, and a train in a large city may carry thousands.

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Being active helps with physical health, and taking transit instead of driving reduces stress. Buses are also safer than individual vehicles. By leaving the car at home, a person can save up to 20 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every day. Buses keep the air cleaner.

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Fuel efficiency Fuel efficiencies used in this analysis were as follows: diesel bus: 4.82 miles per diesel gallon; diesel-hybrid bus: 5.84 miles per diesel gallon; natural gas bus: 4.47 miles per diesel gallon equivalent; and battery electric bus: 2.02 kWh per mile, which accounts for a 90 percent charging efficiency.

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How Much MPG Does a School Bus Get? Admittedly, the average school bus's fuel economy is what you'd expect of a bus—not great. According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center, school buses get an average fuel economy of just 6.02 miles per gallon (MPG).

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Public transportation gets people where they're going while emitting far fewer climate-warming greenhouse gases than private cars. The reason is simple efficiency: while cars usually carry just one or two people at a time, a bus can carry 50 or more, and a train in a large city may carry thousands.

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For in- stance, U.S. bus transit, which has about a quarter (28%) of its seats occupied on average, emits an es- timated 33% lower greenhouse gas emissions per passenger mile than the average U.S. single occu- pancy vehicle.

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But did you know that buses produce less carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than other popular modes of transportation? This includes planes, cars, and even trains. In fact, buses not only produce less emissions, but they use less fuel per passenger, too.

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This means it takes an average of approximately 5.83 passenger cars to carry the average load of a bus (9.21/1.58).

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Power consumption on buses with full-electric heating, “diluted” over 100 km, stands in the range between 179 and 235 kWh. In other words, consumption is reported to span between 1 and 1.4 kWh/km on buses with fossil fuelled heating systems, and up to 2.35 on electrically heated ones.

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Established Member. IIRC, normal double deckers tend to be 4-6MPG, with hybrids getting 8-10MPG.

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