Transit News
February 3, 2006
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APTA is pleased that President Bush highlighted the need to focus on energy independence in his State of the Union address. It is important in this public policy discussion to point out the important role that public transportation plays in reducing our country's dependency on foreign oil.
The value of public transportation in regard to energy savings was highlighted by noted economists Dr. Robert Shapiro and Dr. Kevin Hassett in the report Conserving Energy and Preserving the Environment: The Role of Public Transportation. Among the findings of this report were:
Public transportation saves more than 855 million gallons of gasoline a year, or 45 million barrels of oil. These savings equal about one month's oil imports from Saudi Arabia. In 2004, 9.6 billion trips were taken on public transportation.
If Americans used public transportation at the same rate as Europeans - for roughly 10 percent of their daily travel needs - the United States would reduce its dependence on imported oil by more than 40 percent or nearly the amount of oil we import from Saudi Arabia each year.
President Bush also highlighted the importance in investing in technology. U.S. transit agencies are increasingly investing in alternative fuel buses to reduce dependence on oil. About 17% of fixed route buses currently use alternative fuels and 20% of buses on order will use alternative fuels. According to the preliminary numbers for 2006, there are 7,948 buses that use compressed natural gas (CNG) or a blend of CNG, equaling 13.5% of all available buses (56,036). In addition, there are 1,044 liquified natural gas (LNG) buses comprising 1.8% of all available buses. Preliminary 2006 numbers also show that there are 654 hybrid electric buses (1.1%); 310 propane buses (0.5%); 222 biodiesel buses (0.4%), and 120 electric buses (0.2%). Bio or soy fuel buses and hydrogen buses come to less than 0.1% each of the national transit fleet. Public transportation is clearly doing its part to reduce our country's addiction to oil through alternative technologies.
Increasing our nation's investment in public transportation is an important goal not only for transportation mobility, but also for our ability as a country to make significant strides towards reducing oil dependency and creating energy independence.
For more information on public transportation role's in conserving energy, click on http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/preserving_air.cfm
