Posted on 06/07/2009 6:05:01 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
You worry a lot about the environment and do everything you can to reduce your carbon footprint -- the emissions of greenhouse gases that drive dangerous climate change.
So you always prefer to take the train or the bus rather than a plane, and avoid using a car whenever you can, faithful to the belief that this inflicts less harm to the planet.
Well, there could be a nasty surprise in store for you, for taking public transport may not be as green as you automatically think, says a new US study.
SNIP
These are hidden or displaced emissions that ramp up the simple "tailpipe" tally, which is based on how much carbon is spewed out by the fossil fuels used to make a trip.
SNIP
In some circumstances, for instance, it could be more eco-friendly to drive into a city -- even in an SUV, the bete noire of green groups -- rather than take a suburban train. It depends on seat occupancy and the underlying carbon cost of the mode of transport.
"We are encouraging people to look at not the average ranking of modes, because there is a different basket of configurations that determine the outcome," Chester told AFP in a phone interview.
"There's no overall solution that's the same all the time."
The pair give an example of how the use of oil, gas or coal to generate electricity to power trains can skew the picture.
Boston has a metro system with high energy efficiency. The trouble is, 82 percent of the energy to drive it comes from dirty fossil fuels.
By comparison, San Francisco's local railway is less energy-efficient than Boston's. But it turns out to be rather greener, as only 49 percent of the electricity is derived from fossils.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
“Captain’s log, Star date......”
(Insert theme music)
Hey greenies:
WALK!
One to beam up
Wherever you are, just stay there.
They just keep repeating this sort of nonsense hoping that we will eventually just accept their junk science as fact. What they want is the argument to focus on what we are going to do to "save the planet" and not focus on the fact that their basic premise, i.e. that human generated carbon dioxide is affecting the earth's temperature, is just an idea that the UN made up a few decades back.
I don’t worry at all about the environment, and I do jack squat to limit my carbon footprint.
Well Duh! It takes energy to run the trains, and that energy is petroleum or carbon based, who knew?
Not to mention the energy it takes to build these trains and their support lines. Cities spend billions on trains and light rail and they attract crime and homeless and are generally a money drain. Billions lost and billions more to maintain just for some weirdo utopian dream.
The govt. could buy everyone in the serviced area a compact SUV for less than these boondoggles and come out ahead and probably have less of a “carbon footprint”, whatever that means.
No bloody kidding? You mean that folks hide the real costs of public transportation? Insert Claude Raines Casa Blanca still here ->
Our buses have grayed out windows so taxpayers can’t see only one or two people are riding a bus designed for 60. It’s the liberal “feelings about being green” trumping the reality of waste - once again.
Yeah, I’ve suggested using Volkswagen Diesels instead of buses. They get around 50 mpg, take up a lot less space on the highway, and hold four passengers, which is more than the buses usually carry anyway.
Where does the other 51% come from in SF?
No clue here.
True - but would liberals still be able to "feel" that they're sooooooo wonderful without "public transportation"?
One problem is that mass transport was designed for a very different lifestyle than we have today. It worked fine when families lived in a city or close in suburb, and the man went to work in the urban center from 9 to 5, and the wife stayed home and did all of the family errands and child care within a few blocks of home.
Not a whole lot of people work 9 to 5 and commute without any need to make a stop on the way to or fro. Gov’t workers come closer than anyone else -
Apart from the quite generous 9 to 5 estimate on how long a government worker can sustain rational thought...where do they differ from anyone else in distance traveled or errands en route?
You're saying we have a public transportation system designed for a typical town in 1955?
We're keeping a dysfunctional antiquated system so liberal politicians can feel good about themselves? On our dime? Is that it?
People might ride in them - and being more flexible - they could have more and closer "stops". Then again, some will have a hard time getting over the thrill of seeing a vehicle getting 3 mpg hauling around one old person and a kid with a bike.
If everyone that currently rides public transport into major cities like Chicago and Boston drove instead, the additional vehicles would a) lock up traffic so that emissions would skyrocket as people spent far too much time either driving very slowly or simply sat still and b) have nowhere to park.
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