Public Transport Isn’t That Clean!

I’m not sure how newsworthy this is, but I’m guessing quite so given how furiously politicians sprout their nonsense about buses and other forms of public transport being perfect for the new ‘green’ world we all find ourselves in (like it or not).  On the way home, I had to stand on a noisy, cramped and poorly cleaned bus.  This got me thinking about how much more comfortable on (or even on) just about any form of private transport, rather than being there.

Then, I started considering, as you do, the impact on the environment that this bus journey was having.  Now, unsurprisingly, I found it difficult to find statistics on what kinds of CO2 emissions a ‘normal’ bus puts out.  They don’t tend to advertise that kind of thing on local transport provider websites.  Why?  Take a look at the billowing black smoke coming out of a bus next time it passes you, that probably explains it.

I think the real concern I have is over a complete lack of transparency over the issue.  I read that there’s a possibility that older buses put out more than 50g/km of CO2 per passenger.  If we multiply this by 20 (passengers), that gives 1,000 g/km of CO2 being pushed into the atmosphere.  Here’s another kicker – the bus I was on today was doing 5 miles per gallon.  Five.  This is where the world’s emissions are coming from and where the oil is being used up!

There’s no doubt that if you can cram a lot of people on a bus who would otherwise take a car, then arguably it’s more environmentally friendly than the lot of them jumping into their own BMW M3.  But, would they all be doing so when the average car in Britain is a 1.6 litre and 300,000 people will be leaping into smaller, more eco-friendly cars thanks to a £2k government cheque?  I challenge any bus company to tell me the real figure, in CO2 (not broken down as an average per passenger) that their bus puts out, alongside their average miles per gallon on any given route of their choosing.  I highly doubt that anyone will step up and accept that challenge.

For my side of the bargain, if any public spirited, public transport company would like to offer such information in the interests of full disclosure, I will naturally upload all pertinent information provided.