Anti-car deception

Randal O'Toole:

Transit advocates routinely make deceptive claims about the advantages of transit over cars or rail transit over buses. Often those claims deal with the capacity of different modes of transportation to move people...

Transit advocates often use a particular photo set [above] that purports to show the “space required to transport 60 people by car, bicycle, and bus.” 

The photo on the right shows a conventional 40-foot bus, which has about 40 seats in it and room for about 20 people standing. Next to the bus are the 60 passengers.

The photo on the left shows 60 automobiles with 60 people standing. The 60 automobiles take far more space on the road than the bus, thus supposedly proving that automobiles are inefficient and that they make a much bigger contribution to congestion than buses.

The middle photo for bicycles isn’t pertinent to my point, which is that 60 automobiles can, in fact, transport a lot more than 60 people. Most American cars have five seats but, given that the bus in question is expected to crowd people into the aisle, it would be reasonable to pack six people into the car. 

Some cars, such as certain minivans, can even hold eight or nine people. Instead of 60 cars to hold 60 people, the reality is closer to seven to ten cars.

In other words, the people who use this photo compare a transit vehicle that is full (which transit vehicles rarely are) against cars that are empty except for the driver. 

This photo, or its equivalent, is repeatedly used by transit supporters and auto opponents. The fact that so many of its adherents willingly promote such a complete lie doesn’t say much for the integrity of a political movement.

Since neither cars nor buses operate at full capacity all the time, a more reasonable comparison would be between the average occupancies of the bus and cars. 

The 2017 National Household Transportation Survey found that automobiles carry an average of 1.67 people. The 2018 National Transit Database found that transit buses, including commuter buses, rapid buses, trolley buses as well as conventional buses, carry an average of 8.64 people. That means five cars transport about as many people as one transit bus.

Buses are more than twice as long as most cars, and considering their slower acceleration they are considered equivalent to about three cars on freeways. Since most transit buses make frequent stops to pick up and drop off passengers, I would argue that they use the space of more than three cars on city streets. 

In any case, a comparison of five cars with one bus is much less dramatic but far more realistic than 60 cars with one bus...