Electric Public Transit Efficiency
Shifts from private to public transport (train, trolleybus or tram) have the potential for large gains in efficiency in terms of individual miles per kWh.
Research shows people do prefer trams, because they are quieter and more comfortable and perceived as having higher status.
Therefore, it may be possible to cut liquid fossil fuel consumption in cities through the use of electric trams.
Trams may be the most energy-efficient form of public transportation, with rubber wheeled vehicles using 2/3 more energy than the equivalent tram, and run on electricity rather than fossil fuels.
In terms of net present value, they are also the cheapest—Blackpool trams are still running after 100-years, but combustion buses only last about 15-years.
Read more about this topic: Electric Vehicle
Famous quotes containing the words electric, public, transit and/or efficiency:
“The widest prairies have electric fences....”
—Philip Larkin (19221986)
“Compare ... the cinema with theatre. Both are dramatic arts. Theatre brings actors before a public and every night during the season they re-enact the same drama. Deep in the nature of theatre is a sense of ritual. The cinema, by contrast, transports its audience individually, singly, out of the theatre towards the unknown.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“My esoteric doctrine, is that if you entertain any doubt, it is safest to take the unpopular side in the first instance. Transit from the unpopular, is easy ... but from the popular to the unpopular is so steep and rugged that it is impossible to maintain it.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (17791848)
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and the same in her efficiency and power of action; that is, natures laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through natures universal laws and rules.”
—Baruch (Benedict)