Comparing Motorcycle Energy Efficiency

[Ignacio]

I'm involved with our local transit agency and was looking to answer myself the question of what is most efficient.....big transit buses with lots of passengers, vanpools, and motorcycles.

Finding empirical data I could understand has been a bit elusive, but once I discovered the idea of "BTU per mile" I then found some Department of Energy data that I think answers my question....and even includes actual use data for 2006...of how many actually were on that bus or how many are in that vanpool.

Mode - BTU per passenger per mile - Avg. passengers per vehicle - MPG

1. Vanpool - 1322 - 6.1 - 87
   
2. Motorcycle - 1855 - 1.2 - 62
   
3. Rail (Intercity Amtrak) - 2650 - 20.5 - 43
   
4. Rail (Transit light & Heavy) - 2784 - 22.5 - 41
   
5. Rail (Commuter) - 2996 - 31.3 - 38
   
6. Air - 3261 - 96.2 - 35
   
7. Cars - 3512 - 1.57 - 33
   
8. Personal Trucks - 3944 - 1.72 - 29
   
9. Buses (Transit) - 4235 - 8.8 - 27

Or here.
The data surprised me in a couple of places. I figured vanpools were more efficient than our partially filled buses, but I had now clue that buses would be at the very bottom...worse than cars or even personal trucks!

Motorcycles fare well too! We're like our own mini mass transit alternative.

 

[Fred W]

Playing the devil's advocate: I seldom see a commuter riding 2-up on a motorcycle. Yes, as a vehicle in general the number of passengers would have to be > 1, but as a commuter it would be darn close to 1.

Of course the flip side is making sure they account for all the mass transit miles with empty cars during off peak hours.

 

[wfooshee]

Shows how bad it gets when buses are under-utilized. Put 30 people on that bus and do the arithmetic, gets right there with the vanpool. So "big transit buses with lots of passengers" would work, but that 8.8 is not "lots of passengers."

 

[BwanaDik]

Good info but be wary of the source. Probably OK for conversation but I'd double check everything before I put in in an official presentation for work.

Wiki is notorious for having "bent" data. I saw an interview with some college prof that had just finished reading a bunch of term papers. He was suprised that so many of them had the same wrong premise and conclusions so he did some research. Turns out most of the info from the papers in error was from Wiki.

Just a warning!

I did something similar to this only on freight costs of shipping, trucking, and rail. And I think it was in BTU's/Ton-mile. I think I got it from the E.I.A. I'll post it if I can find it.

 

[Ignacio]

Playing the devil's advocate: I seldom see a commuter riding 2-up on a motorcycle. Yes, as a vehicle in general the number of passengers would have to be > 1, but as a commuter it would be darn close to 1.
Of course the flip side is making sure they account for all the mass transit miles with empty cars during off peak hours.

I agree...I seldom see 2-up commuting either. But, the data is more than just commuting...I believe it's all miles traveled of all transportation modes whether it's commute, recreation, travel, or other. It's also independent of demand times.

Good info but be wary of the source. Probably OK for conversation but I'd double check everything before I put in in an official presentation for work.

It's not for work. And the Wiki has a link to the DOE source data.....which I'm going through it now to validate the summarization.

The full data book has an extensive write-up about their methodology for figuring these averages if one wants to read through.

 

[str8]

Interesting and surprising.

I'd like to see the numbers if you put a really light electric scooter under everybody's butt.

Wouldn't be much fun for rippin' up the pavement though.

 

[Duezzer]

Man if this study is true kind of puts a hole in the Ozone of the average urban enviromentallist

If city transit is that bad - WOW

I am Very Amazed

Go Bikes Go

I was told once the New 1800 Wing is so efficent that a new standard was set with emmisions - there was no previous vehicle that is on the road that matches it

Electric vehicles are only efficent on end use for polution reduction and if they have a low emision electrial supply -ie solar or wind - Most electricity is actually very dirty in its production

 

[exskibum]

Thanks for sharing that, Iggy. Very interesting comparisons, and some food for thought related to utilization.

 

[str8]

Electric vehicles are only efficent on end use for polution reduction and if they have a low emision electrial supply -ie solar or wind - Most electricity is actually very dirty in its production

Hydro-electric not dirty and Nuclear, with some effort, could become much cleaner.

 

[wfooshee]

If city transit is that bad - WOW

It's the unused city transit that's that bad. They run the buses on the schedule, whether anybody's on them or not. It's not like they can park if nobody's waiting at the stop.

Factor the bus with 25 or 30 passengers instead of 8.8 and it looks an awful lot better. Then again, run that vanpool vehicle with just the driver and look how bad it gets.

High occupancy vehicles don't work without the occupancy. That's what I see in the numbers there.

 

[FJRBluesman]

I like those stats. I say it's good data.

 

[DailyCommuter]

I know on my personal level I commute a total of 780 miles per week working 6 days. My feej averages around 42 MPG and my diesel pickup averages about 18 to 20 MPG. So if we figure twice the MPG on the feej + Quardruple the fun my milage per trip divided by fun per mile equals motorcycles should have their own lane on the roads and highways. They do it for bicycles and those fairy pants wearing road hogging traffic slowing fools don't even have to pay excise tax for usage.

Can you tell I don't like bicycles.

But seriously it surprises me a little to see the bus numbers. I'd have bet they were worse than that. We have electric buses in a couple towns near Boston, and there is still the Green Line trolley that runs on electric. I wonder how they compare. You should see the green line durring commuter hours. Can you say S-a-r-d-i-n-e-s?

 

[7xray]

Mode - BTU per passenger per mile - Avg. passengers per vehicle - MPG

1. Vanpool - 1322 - 6.1 - 87
   
2. Motorcycle - 1855 - 1.2 - 62
   
3. Rail (Intercity Amtrak) - 2650 - 20.5 - 43
   
4. Rail (Transit light & Heavy) - 2784 - 22.5 - 41
   
5. Rail (Commuter) - 2996 - 31.3 - 38
   
6. Air - 3261 - 96.2 - 35
   
7. Cars - 3512 - 1.57 - 33
   
8. Personal Trucks - 3944 - 1.72 - 29
   
9. Buses (Transit) - 4235 - 8.8 - 27

Or here.

Interesting stuff. Would the last number in the list above be "Passenger Miles per gallon"?