Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Which is Most Energy Efficient?

June 30, 2011

With millions of Americans hitting the roads, rails and skies this Independence Day weekend, our infographic looks at which common modes of transportation are most energy efficient. GE Reports is also hitting the beach, either by bus or Zipcar, and we’ll be back on Tuesday, July 5th. Enjoy the holiday!


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  • Ted Russell

    Whoever is presenting this as an example of good data visualization should read the book “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,” by Edward R. Tufte. This is a busy, confusing chart that appears to show more than it does. It is a good example of what Tufte calls “chartjunk”, which has a very high ratio of ink to data. The dial gauge at the upper left does not contain any information. It was only after looking at it for the third or fourth time that I realized it is supposed to be the legend. A legend is not even needed when the different modes of transportation are illustrated by symbols. The most useful set of data, the amount of energy needed to move one passenger one mile, is illustrated with a list of numbers instead of a bar graph. The other two sets of data are pointless – of course a plane is going to fly many more miles per year, and is going to use much more fuel that other modes.

  • Luke Gilliam

    I have an interpretation question. The energy efficiency table states that the numbers reflect BTUs required to move each passenger one mile, and the paragraph just left says moving multiple people requires slightly more fuel than moving just one.

    If I am comparing buses to cars, I feel like there is another datapoint missing: the additional fuel required per passenger. As it reads (at least to me), it appears that buses are less efficient than cars, but this must surely be for a single passenger in each. If enough passengers rode a bus, then its per-passenger fuel consumption should be much lower than a car.

    Playing with the numbers given and assuming each passenger requires 50% as much fuel, the bus breaks almost even with the car at 4 passengers and pulls ahead at 5.

    Also, I would be curious to see secondary factors such as operator salary, relative maintenance, insurance, and others costs to get a full-spectrum comparison, if you are taking requests :-)

  • Dan Bohlen

    I have no idea what the purpose is of the “fuel consumption per vehicle” is supposed to prove/demonstrate. Yes, planes consume much more than any other vechicle. They carry 100+ on average and operate 10-12 hours day. And the point is??????

    I assume the plug is cars not bad, mass transit not better… Next slide electric cars powered by GE power terminals GOOD!

  • Preston Kemp

    I fully agree with Ted’s comments. The graphic is an unfortunate example of what happens when you focus on making a pretty, mostly meaningless picture, and don’t consider what the information that needs to be communicated, compared, and etc. Most of the so-called infographics that I see today fall into this category. If you are going to communicate information visually, please read ALL of Edward Tufte’s books as a prerequisite!

  • Jeff

    Dang I need to stop flying across the country with my whole family! Instead, I’ll just by a motorcycle and drive. We’ll just strap the baby on top of the suitcases, which will be precariously balanced on the back of the bike. The wife can just ride on the handle bars. Of course it will take me a week to get there instead of a few hours, but at least it will be more energy efficient..

  • Bob Shoop

    You guys may be over analyzing it a bit. Clearly the graph makes no sense, but its from a link on GE’s website, which contains a lot of useless information. Wind Turbines? Really guys?

  • Guy Lacombe

    One additional comment regarding the “fuel consumption data”: The reason that many potential investors/buyers might like the “ave. individual vehicle per year fuel consumption in gallons” number is becuase they may want to concentrate on the relative cost of operation of the individual vehicles “independent of the number of passengers”. Investors can then estimate their particular market demand for fare paying passengers to determine their forecasted revenue. Therefore, maybe this is one reason why the researcher chose to present that information to help folks determine their “energy” cost.

    Wanted to thank the researchers for giving potential transportation business owners a relative energy cost.

  • Uma

    Tell you what : Certainly makes interesting reading. Cheers.

  • Maria Gabriela

    I believe when we speak about energy efficiency we also have to take into consideration the whole energy consumption during the productive life of these means of transportation. Perhaps, after a life cycle analysis for each of them, considering the energy input for fabrication, delivery, operation, final disposal as well as fuel consuption per mile travelled, we may get a different but also very interesting figure.

  • Dan

    Ted and others are correct; this is just a terrible graphic. Tufte’s books should be taught in high school. Only 1 out of the 4 graphics are meaningful (Energy efficiency) and I’m not even sure if that’s correct as it says a bus is less energy efficient than a car. That is very hard to believe as it said the calcs were done assuming fully loaded vehicles. The Distance and Fuel consumption graphs tell you nothing that isn’t totally obvious. There are so many interesting charts that could have been made to compare transportation efficiency and this chart showed none of them. You really want to compare energy per person mile traveled. And ideally include the amortization of the infrastructure needed to support each transportation method.

  • Jon

    I would heartily agree with Ted above. I’m not normally overly critical, but the graphic shows very little information that is truly useful…..the bargraph is about it, and even on that, it would be much more meaningful with some explanation of the assumptions (eg, is it based on a partially loaded bus/train/airplane, is it based on actual loading that we see in practice, etc.). The other charts really have no useful meaning as far as I can tell. Yes, an individual airplane goes many more miles than an individual car, surprise surprise…..so what does that mean for anything?

  • Farrukh

    This is perfect example of enjoying comments rather than the presentation.
    Plus…It is US bureau of transportation’s data of 2008….

  • Curious

    The chart gives various bits of data, making not singular point overall. What could help propel the information is to potentially give various scenarios to put the data into perspective. i.e. bus vs plan fuel consumption for 10 miles, vs 1000 miles etc.