Good.is magazine has a great visualization of the amount of fuel it takes to power cruise ships to bicycles. The measurement is really, “how many gallons of fuel does it take per passenger to move 350 miles.”

Big surprises:

A bus is more fuel efficient than a train, despite the train’s high capacity.
Average SUV uses more fuel than a cruise ship.
A car uses more fuel than an airplane.
Walking requires more Whoppers than biking.

An anonymous commenter on Good.is blog shared this:

using the figures included in the chart, i calculated the number of
gallons per passenger required to travel 350 miles at full capacity.
the only figures needed are capacity (# of passengers when full) and
gallons per mile (# of gallons required to travel 1 mile at full
capacity). the corrected “motor coach” fuel consumption value was
used.

divide [gallons per mile] by [capacity] to get the number of
gallons per passenger required to travel 1 mile. multiply this by 350
miles to arrive at the number of gallons per passenger required to
travel 350 miles at full capacity.

the results in descending order
(gallons/passenger @ 350 miles):

1. cruise ship (14.5)
2. motorcycle (5.9)
3. boeing 737 (4.8)
4. suv (3.4)
5. sedan (3.2)
6. amtrak (2.5)
7. prius (1.9)
8. walking (1.75)
9. “motor coach” (1.4)
10. bicycle (0.35)

What do you think? Is the image accurate? Click on it to see.

How many gallons of fuel does it take per passenger to cover 350 miles?

Related posts:

1. UNLV Transit Hub Study, Part 2 of 2
2. Viva Bike Vegas clinics and practice rides
3. Lost: Bike Wheels
4. Public Transportation in Bogotá