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The American Energy Consumer







Table 4-5.Actual and Minimum Possible Energy Use Per Passenger Mile, by Transportation Mode, 1970 (estimates based on seats used—Intercity and Urban)
Actual Minimum possible
Transportation mode Btu's per passenger mile Percent of seats used Btu's per passenger mile Percent of seats used
Intercity
Bus 1,600 46 740 100
Railroad 2,900 37 1,100 100
Automobile 3,400 48 1,600 100
Airplane 8,400 49 4,100 100
Urban
Public transit 3,800 20 760 100
Automobile 8,100 28 2,300 100
Source: Prepared by Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies from Eric Hirst, Energy Intensiveness of Passenger and Freight Transport Modes 1950-1970, Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, April 1973, Table 12, p. 27.

mode would fall, but the ranking would remain the same, with the airplane the most energy intensive followed by the car, railroad, and bus. In local transportation, public transit would still use much less energy than the car.

Footnotes

Footnote :

a The second car in many households is for the wife. Women are a rising proportion of all drivers: in 1940 one-quarter of all drivers were women; by 1972 almost half were women.

Footnote :

a Excludes school buses.

Footnote :

b Less than 0.5 percent.

Footnote :

c Preliminary.

Footnote :

a Not available.

Footnote :

b Public transit.

Footnote :

a Not available.

DECLINING CAR MILEAGE

Cars use a large amount of energy because there are so many of them. In addition, the passenger car has undergone a transformation toward greater energy usage per auto. The cars being produced today use more energy than those made in 1950. Increasing weight, higher speeds on freeways, and more energy-consuming equipment such as air conditioning, automatic transmissions, and emission controls have greatly reduced gasoline mileage (Table 4-6).

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, weight has the most important effect on gasoline mileage. A 5,000 pound auto has a 50 percent lower gas mileage than a 2,500 pound auto. In the United States, car weight (both for individual models and a weighted average for all sales) has increased significantly from 1962 to 1973.

Households interviewed in the WCMS survey report better car mileage on older cars than on new ones. Almost half of all cars two years old and older get better than fourteen miles to the gallon in local driving. Less than two-fifths of the new cars do as well. The reported advantage in gasoline mileage for older cars is less in long distance travel, but still present: almost three-fourths