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Old 08-29-2019, 08:25 AM   #8 (permalink)
Hersbird
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5 View Post
25 MPGe. That sounded low to me until I looked up the fuel economy of a modern ICE city bus... at 3 MPG!

Alright, buses should be hybrid at minimum, and probably BEV considering you don't need the maintenance headaches of an ICE and the cost of $1 per mile in fuel.

... so city buses are touted as being environmentally friendly, but you'd need 10 passengers to get the darn thing to 30 passenger miles per gallon. You need 17 people to make it as fuel efficient as a Prius with a single occupant, and completely fill it to make it as efficient as a Prius with 2 occupants.

City buses sound like an inferior mode of transportation considering they take you from where you don't live, and drop you off not quite where you need to go, on their own schedule, and don't save any fuel or money in the processes.

Average occupancy of a vehicle is 1.7 persons, while a city bus is 10, FYI.
I always argued we would be better off with minivans as our ridership was so low, even running direct door to door city owned cars would have made more financial sense considering how much a bus and driver costs. Instead they made it zero fare and ridership did go up pretty good. I still see empty or near empty buses driving the routes but I suppose if they didn't have consistent buses running the routes every hour or so, the peak ridership would drop off. I feel we are more progressive than even Portland or Berkeley, not that that is all a good thing. The best thing about Missoula? We are only 15 minutes away from Montana... I always joke.
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