Quote:
Originally Posted by popimp
Busses and trains are better for FE. Planes use more fuel, but the loss of headaches are well worth the gamble.
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Actually, depending on the number of people and type of vehicle, planes can be more efficient than traveling by car! A typical modern jet airliner gets about 60MPG per passenger. So if you are traveling alone, you would have to drive a car that gets better than 60MPG in order to burn less fuel than your share of the fuel burned by an airliner. In other words, it won't be too easy to do this even with that 1988 CRX HF that you just swapped a D15Z1 into. Two people would need to drive together in a car that gets better than 30MPG to better a plane, three people would have to drive together in a vehicle that gets better than 20MPG, etc, etc. While it becomes more likely that you can better the plane with more people, the fact is that most cars that two people would drive together in don't get 30MPG. And when three or more people drive long distance, chances are they are going to drive some fuel hog SUV, and not a Civic or Prius. Espeially if we are talking big people with lots of luggage. So the plane might do better here as well. Furthermore, new planes such as the Boeing Dreamliner and the new double deck plane by Airbus (don't know the name) are getting around 80MPG per passenger. On any kind of long trip, this would be VERY hard to beat by driving. And because gas turbine engines are getting better and better in terms of efficiency (the best airliner engines are over 40% efficient these days), air travel promises to become even more efficient in the future.
Of course, improvements in gas turbine efficiency, combined with electrification of railroads, also promises to improve the efficiency of rail travel (MUCH electricity is generated by natural gas fired gas turbine power plants).
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