Facts about polution,traffic and gas

[Bostech]

The U.S. uses about half of the world's gasoline. (6)

Cars and SUV's use 40% of the oil that's used daily in the U.S. (13)

Switching from an average new car to a 13 mpg SUV for a year would  waste more energy than leaving a refrigerator door open for six years, a bathroom light burning for 30 years, or a color TV turned on for 28 years. (4)

Raising the fuel-economy standards for SUV's and other light trucks to equal that of cars would save 1 million barrels of oil a day. (4)

Improving the average fuel efficiency of vehicles in the United States by 2.7 miles per gallon would equal all U.S. oil imports from the Persian Gulf, according to conservation advocate Amory Lovins. (12)

Big pickups even worse than SUV's. Fuel efficiency of the average pickup has also declined from as high as 19.2 miles a gallon in the 1987 model year to 16.8 miles a gallon today. The average S.U.V. gets 17.8 miles a gallon now and the average car 24.8. And even those averages do not count the very biggest vehicles those weighing more than 8,500 pounds fully loaded which are exempt under federal law. Like the Hummer and other giant sport utilities, the biggest pickups average little more than 10 miles a gallon. (NYT, July 31, 2003)

Fuel Economy. After the 1973-74 energy crisis Congress required cars to be more efficient and to get an average of 27.5 mpg by 1985. It worked. From 1964-74 gas consumption had risen 48% to 6.5 million bbl. a day. But increased fuel economy meant that gas consumption barely went up at all between 1976 and 1991 (7 million bbl. a day to only 7.2 million). Progress stopped in 1988 under Bush the elder, and Clinton and Bush Jr. along with Congress were happy to give automakers a free ride, and fuel economy has gone steadily downward. (Time magazine, "Why America is Running Out of Gas", July 13, 2003)

If every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person, we'd save eight billion gallons of gas a year. (7)

95% of a car's energy goes towards moving the car itself, and only 5% to moving the passenger. The average passenger car weighs 3000 lbs. (source), so if a person weighs 150 lbs., then 3000 / (3000 + 150) = 95.2%. Put two people in the car and it drops to 91% (3000 / (3000 + 150 + 150). With four people, it's 83% (3000 / (3000+150+150+150+150). Contrast with a 30-lb. bicycle: 83% of the energy goes towards transporting the rider, not the vehicle (150 / (30+150).

Traffic congestion wastes three billion gallons of gas a year. (7) (But note that it's not possible to save energy by reducing congestion, because every attempt to facilitate traffic flow simply results in more traffic. This issue has been studied exhaustively.)

Higher gas prices don't decrease consumption. Knight Ridder maintains that at least in the spring of 2006, gas consumption kept increasing even as prices went up.

Current gas prices are available at GasPriceWatch.com.


The rest of it you can read at :

http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac.html

[Jason]

Nice find Bos.

Its a common misconception that cars have gotten more effecient over the last 20 years.  Also, making cars more effecient might not be the end all solution either because as cars get more effecient it allows drivers to travel/commute further on the same amount of money witch allows them to live further from work.

[Bostech]

Well regular cars are more efficient but big ones like SUV's and trucks are not.And most Americans go for bigger car.
I don't think people would travel more if we had efficient transit system,smart lights and better designs but we would save on traffic and pollution.