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191 Comments
- ar1c3, on 07/16/2009, -5/+99This comparison in crap. The plane uses Kerosene. The train uses diesel or is wired into the grid. The rest of the vehicles could run on high octane gas, diesel, or even hydrogen fuel cells. Who knows! The prices of all these fuels fluctuate daily.
Furthermore, the comparison obviously does not take the cost of the vehicle production into account. Hybrid car batteries are extremely expensive. This would push up the hybrid's graph dramatically. - xeriscaped, on 07/16/2009, -1/+69Interesting- a full bus (or a SUV full of people) is more cost efficient then a single person riding a scooter for a 500 mile trip. This illustrates the power of carpooling/mass transportation.
- thrillhouse900, on 07/16/2009, -0/+39Wheres the bicycle?
- BoneStamp, on 07/16/2009, -0/+39I can't remember the last time I saw 5 people in an SUV or 4 people in a hybrid. That might be the average capacity of these vehicles, but it's not the average number of people who commonly travel in the vehicle.
- UnFriendlyFire, on 07/16/2009, -3/+41To summarize, it's cheaper to take the bus.
- serif69, on 07/16/2009, -5/+43They left out a huge calculation in this argument, which is miles per gallon per passenger. That looks like this:
Plane: 73.5
Train: 138
Bus: 250
SUV: 105
Sedan: 108
Hybrid: 184
Scooter: 70 - Dignan666, on 07/16/2009, -0/+38This is missing the graph for time lost. Time is money after all.
- zacharytelschow, on 07/16/2009, -0/+30That's assuming the buses and trains are full. That is typically not the case.
- numberneal, on 07/16/2009, -0/+27man, i could use that graphic to get funding for my scooter rental business on south beach.
- galeninjapan, on 07/16/2009, -5/+31Cool story bro.
- bluehouse, on 07/16/2009, -2/+26My time is worth far more than fuel. It's cheaper to fly 500 miles than take a frickin' scooter
- cygnus2112, on 07/16/2009, -0/+23To summarize, it's more fuel efficient to ride on a full bus.
- sexybobo, on 07/16/2009, -0/+23This graph also assumes that cars have 4 people in them. Which is hardly ever the case.
- cygnus2112, on 07/16/2009, -0/+22Certainly not the case when it comes to automobiles. It's rare to see more than 2 people during a commute. Even more common to see just a single driver.
So you have to take the 4th chart with a grain of salt. - zacharytelschow, on 07/16/2009, -2/+24Where is cost per passenger per mile?
- realeskimopimp, on 07/16/2009, -2/+20Where is the calculation of the initial investment costs of cars, SUVs, Hybrids and scooters?
- steelersfan7roe, on 07/16/2009, -2/+18@ CanadianCheese.
Bicycles do use fuel.
It's called food. - DeskFlyer, on 07/16/2009, -1/+16Where is miles per gallon per passenger per unit of time?
- elf25, on 07/16/2009, -1/+14I agree. I also see that various forms of water transportation have been left out. And since we are moving something, a passenger, it would be wise to consider time in the efficiency equation also such as miles per hour or the amount of time it takes to complete a 500 mile journey.
- bbardlbradd, on 07/16/2009, -0/+12Look it up, the bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation available. Petroleum yields around 31,000 calories per gallon.
Hybrid: 31,000 Calories == 45 Miles
Cyclist: 31,000 Calories == 912 Miles - greenmoonice, on 07/16/2009, -0/+11The average cost to launch a Space Shuttle is about $450 million per mission with a six man crew it cost $75 million per crew member
835,000 gallons of propellant is uesed to launch the Space Shuttle
Average speed of the Space Shuttle 18,000 mph.
Miles traveled in a 14 day misson 6,000,000
Therefore the Space Shuttle get 7.2 MPG and it costs $12.50 per mile for a 6 man crew.
I know it's a stupid compairson but no more dumber than compairing a jet to scotter. - stklaw, on 07/16/2009, -0/+10To summarize, we need flying scooters.
- davalf, on 07/16/2009, -1/+11It can't make it 500 miles on one charge... so it's kind of impractical to put on the list.
- Shwaavay, on 07/16/2009, -1/+10Divide all the numbers in the last panel by 500... :)
- Shawn4168, on 07/16/2009, -1/+10Well damn, I was getting ready to take my scooter for a 500 mile trip, but I guess I'll take the bus instead.
- Axsuul, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8I agree, this chart is a little misleading. Seat-miles/gal (what is used in the industry) is more informative and a passenger auto is not full most of the time while an airplane usually is.
- FillBax, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8This is Digg we don't care about copyrights! ***** the MPAA!
/s - megaton, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8Seeing as there are 0 planes and trains on the road today, I'd say they win, since 0 x anything = ...
- GamerXR72, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8Cost per passenger: Dignity.
- ousthouse, on 07/16/2009, -1/+9A graph showing mpg per passenger would be more practical.
In that case, the Boeing 737 has 73.5mpg while the scooter has 70. - kstein1110, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8But planes are SO fast!
- Jobe479, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7Average number of passengers for an SUV is 5?
*****. - Wildthing, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7I'm nitpicking here but it's actually the most efficient HUMAN POWERED form of transportation. A sailboat arguably uses no fuel/calories though I don't know how to convert wind power into equivalent units.
- Zdorab, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7I wish more people rode the bus.
- backflipper, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7Bicycles run on bacon.
- donkz, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7So my 9,000 miles plane trip will cost me ~$750 in fuel with ticket being $800. That's actually good to know.
- Scrappy1850, on 07/16/2009, -1/+81 gallon of jet fuel != 1 gallon of unleaded != 1 gallon of diesal
- pinetree, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7Yeah, if we assume 1 person in the SUV, that works out to $60.25 per passenger; far more expensive than the $39.66 per passenger for an airplane (planes typically have all seats full, unlike an SUV).
- dcshiderly, on 07/16/2009, -4/+11This short study also completely overlooks the flexibility of having your own vehicle. Buses are notoriously slow and infrequent. For example, even in cities with good bus service, a car will accomplish a round-trip in less than 1/4 the time of the bus. In cities with poor service, the time factor is easily 1/10th.
- GamerXR72, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7When I flew from LAX to DFW, it cost me $160 and about 7 hours from boarding to exiting.
When looking at methods to travel, the bus ride from LAX (there abouts) to DFW (there abouts) was about $150 and 3 days. - chris4404, on 07/16/2009, -0/+7You must be a riot at parties.
- superkendall, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6The "cost per passenger" shows what an incredible deal plane travel is, considering how quickly the plane will take you 500 miles vs. a car. The charts try to paint airplane travel as silly but even they cannot hide the fundamental value of rapid travel.
They also hide infrastructure cost - trains require a huge amount of infrastructure compared to planes. So do cars for that matter, requiring well maintained roads... - tamman2000, on 07/16/2009, -1/+7The plane doesn't use kerosene. It uses jet fuel (usually Jet A), which is practically identical to diesel. And, in case you were wondering, you can run a diesel or a jet on kerosene, diesel or jet A.
I used to be a jet engine combustion engineer... - JoshDelvin, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6Would also be interesting to correlate this to the number of each transportation device on the road today.
- Shwaavay, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6He was 1 minute faster! Gimme a break!
- inactive, on 07/16/2009, -1/+7seriously?
- steelersfan7roe, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6Yeah, I was wondering why the scooter shot up in the last graph.
People are not going 500 miles on a scooter and carpooling is great but it's not a given. - fortheworld, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6That's the spirit! I won't give a ***** because noone else does!
- brb1031, on 07/16/2009, -0/+6From an individual's point of view, its _always_ more fuel efficient to take the bus... because the bus will burn that fuel *whether or not you get on.* Or, the marginal fuel cost is almost zero.
From a metro planning perspective, routing buses for high occupancy is a different problem. - zeth006, on 07/16/2009, -2/+8The part where I get bothered a tad bit is where I see a SUV or even a Hummer with one passenger.
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