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Karl Burkart's Blog

Karl Burkart

Greyhound's eco-bus vs. flying...

Which one is greener? I put both to the carbon test.
Fri, Nov 06 2009 at 7:37 PM EST
Read more: CARBON FOOTPRINT, GREEN TRAVEL

Image: Greyhound
In plotting out an upcoming trip from D.C. to Boston I was pleased to discover Greyhound's new, greener bus fleet which in addition to sporting free wifi and AC plugs (bloggers, put your hands up) boasts a super fuel efficient engine. According to Greyhound calculations, the per-passenger mile works out to approximately 1/3 less CO2 emissions than a hybrid car taking the same trip.
 
Comparing the Greyhound trip with a Prius the 438 miles trip works out to...
 
PRIUS: 438 mi / 45 mpg avg. = 9.73 gallons x 20 lbs CO2/gal (that is the conservative estimate) = 195 lbs CO2
 
GREYHOUND (according to their calcs): = 195/3 = 65 lbs CO2
 
Then I wondered how that compares to a typical commuter airplane flight on, say the JetBlue's nonstop commuter flight (flight mileage is 401 miles)...
 
FLIGHT (according to CarbonFund calculator): = .08 tons x 2000 lbs = 160 lbs CO2
 
Note: the airline calculation does not incorporate "radiative forcing," or the increased impact of CO2 emitted at high altitudes. If you factor that in it works out to .21 tons (or 420 pounds).
 
The greyhound wins this carbon race.
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Posted By Gil Friend - Wed, Nov 11 2009 at 2:33 PM EST

A little transparency?

How did Greyhound come up with their 195? or their "1/3" less? Need to know to be able to compare or evaluate. And how full was the bus in their calculations?

BTW: _your_ calc of their calc is saying 2/3 less of Prius (they say 1/3 less). So this is all not very useful yet.

Try again?

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Posted By Mike Holden - Wed, Nov 11 2009 at 1:43 PM EST

Innumeracy

If Greyhound is making "1/3 less" emissions than the Prius, you should take 2/3 of the 195 pounds of CO2, not 1/3. This makes the CO2 output for the bus 130 pounds, not 65 pounds.

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Posted By Benjamin Lascelle - Wed, Nov 11 2009 at 1:13 PM EST

Don't Count your chickens yet

The key is in the number of passengers.

Grayhound does not state how many passengers are on the bus. If the bus is presumed full then the above estimate could not go any lower. Instead it could go higher if the estimate above is based on a full bus and the bus is traveling at half capacity. In this scenario CO2 emissions per passenger double to 130 pounds.

However, if the Prius has 2 occupants the per passenger emissions are 98 pounds (195 / 2). If the Prius is comfortably full.... More

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Posted By JohnQPublic - Wed, Nov 11 2009 at 10:09 AM EST

NONE of those can compare to Acela

You neglected THE greenest way to get from Boston to DC. The Amtrak Acela electric train. One gallon of diesel fuel can generate enough electrical power to move a ton of freight (or passengers) 423 miles on rails.

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Posted By Ken - Mon, Nov 09 2009 at 1:13 AM EST

CO2 is not the only measure

This analysis leaves out plenty, but perhaps the most important is the concept of "climate forcing." High altitude flight has a much greater impact than its carbon contribution might imply.

  • reply
Posted By Josiah Raison Cain - Sun, Nov 08 2009 at 9:50 AM EST

Greyhound

And more interestingly, the Prius loses the carbon race...
It's more eco to fly than drive a Prius, really? I guess it's necessary to understand how significant the radiative forcing is since it changes the game from beating out the Prius to lagging far behind.

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