Travelling by bus instead of by car is the same as saving the carbon emissions of 54 million Americans

As part of the “TheWay2Go” campaign which is supported by Smart Move, CheckMyBus -a leading search engine for bus travel- carried out an analysis which puts into context what the CO2 emissions from the transportation industry mean for the planet under the basic premise: What would happen if all Americans travelled by bus instead of by car?

Among the most staggering results, CheckMyBus found that if all Americans travelled by bus instead of by car, it would be the same as saving 890 million metric tons of CO2 - the equivalent of the carbon emissions released by 54 million Americans.

The transportation industry releases 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in one year. The four major modes of transportation account for a 69.9% of the whole transportation output, of which passenger cars alone (including SUVs) account for 61% of all the emissions produced by the transportation industry. Commercial aviation and the rail industry come in second and third with 6.4% and 2.4% respectively, while the bus industry releases a mere 0.10% of the emissions from the whole transportation industry.

By releasing only 19.1 million metric tons of CO2, buses are by far the eco-friendliest mode of transportation.

If all Americans left their cars at home and instead travelled by bus, America would save 890 million metric tons of CO2. That’s the same as:

• Taking 188 million passenger cars off the road for one year
• Save the equivalent of 840 million acres of U.S. Forests
• Saving the electricity of 94 million homes for one year  
• The CO2 emissions of 54 million Americans

Passenger cars, including SUVs, release up to 1,100 million metric tons of CO2 at 1.08 lbs CO2/passenger mile. That is 6 times more CO2 per mile than buses (0.19 lbs/passenger mile).

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