Why cars are greener than buses (maybe)

A nice story about when and why cars are not as bad as you think, but you should still take public transport, or bike, or foot, especially if you live in town.

And for quick reference here are the basic stats:

The average car emits something like 180g per passenger kilometre.

You may be surprised to learn that, on that basis, taking the car is less environmentally friendly than taking a typical, well-filled short-haul plane, which emits 150g/km per passenger.

If I pack my family of five into a car, the average emissions per passenger falls to just 45g/km (and that’s not taking into account the fact that most members of my family are very small).

With 12 people in a carriage [in the sleeper train from London to Scotland]  you’d be lucky to emit less than 200g/km.

a bus with average occupancy (9 people) is more polluting than a car with average occupancy (1.57 people).

And the final conclusion:

Even though travelling by car can be less polluting than public transport you should always take the public transport option.

That’s because buses and trains are running anyway. They will be out there generating CO2 whether you ride them or not. So when you choose to take your car, the pollution you create will be on top of whatever the public transport option is producing.

The other key point is that my argument only really holds so long as you have other people in your car with you. Travel alone – the statistics show – and the car is, just as the greens claim, one of the most polluting forms of transport on earth.

BBC: Why cars are greener than buses (maybe)