An Evaluation of Automobles, Buses, Trains, and Aircraft in the United States
A Study Completed at the University of California, Berkeley
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About the Study:
Dr. Mikhail Chester and Professor Arpad Horvath have completed an environmental life-cycle inventory of passenger transportation modes in the United States. This analysis is the first comprehensive environmental life-cycle assessment of automobiles, buses, trains, and aircraft in the United States. The study inventories energy consumption and emissions (greenhouse gas, criteria air pollutants, and volatile organic compounds) for vehicle, infrastructure, and fuel components from material extraction and processing through use and maintenance.
Contact Information:
To contact the authors, please send an email to mchester@cal.berkeley.edu and horvath@ce.berkeley.edu.
Systems Inventoried:
Automobiles: Sedan (similar to a Toyota Camry), Sport Utilitiy Vehicle (similar to a Chevrolet Trailblazer), and Pickup (similar to a Ford F-150).
Buses: Typical 40-foot Urban Bus.
Heavy Rail Transit: California's San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Caltrain.
Light Rail Transit: California's San Francisco Muni Metro and Massachusett's Boston Green Line.
High Speed Rail: California's proposed High Speed Rail.
Aircraft: Small (similar to an Embraer 145), Midsize (similar to a Boeing 737, and Large (similar to a Boeing 747) Aircraft.
Abstract:
To appropriately mitigate environmental impacts from transportation, it is necessary for decision makers to consider the life-cycle energy use and emissions. Most current decision-making relies on analysis at the tailpipe, ignoring vehicle production, infrastructure provision, and fuel production required for support. We present results of a comprehensive life-cycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and selected criteria air pollutant emissions inventory for automobiles, buses, trains, and airplanes in the US, including vehicles, infrastructure, fuel production, and supply chains. We find that total life-cycle energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions contribute an additional 63% for onroad, 155% for rail, and 31% for air systems over vehicle tailpipe operation. Inventorying criteria air pollutants shows that vehicle non-operational components often dominate total emissions. Life-cycle criteria air pollutant emissions are between 1.1 and 800 times larger than vehicle operation. Ranges in passenger occupancy can easily change the relative performance of modes.
Components Included:
The table below identifies the components inventoried in the life-cycle assessment:
| Onroad Modes | Rail Modes | Air Modes |
| Vehicle Components | ||
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| Infrastructure Components | ||
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| Fuel Components | ||
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Publications:
June 2009
Environmental Assessment of Passenger Transportation Should Include Infrastructure and Supply Chains
Core dissertation results are published at Environmental Research Letters.
May 2009
Life-cycle Energy and Emissions Inventories for Motorcycles, Diesel Automobiles, School Buses, Electric Buses, Chicago Rail, and New York City Rail
Supplemental data is presented for motorcycles, diesel automobiles, school buses, electric buses, Chicago rail, and New York City rail.
August 2008
Dissertation
Final methodology and results published as Mikhail Chester's doctoral dissertation. This document supercedes the previous working papers vwp-2008-2 and vwp-2007-7.
December, 2007
UCTC
Preliminary results to the University of California Transportation Center comparing heavy rail and air passenger transit.
News:
August 2009
NY Times: How Green is Your Travel
The NY Times Green Inc blog discusses our results in the context of recent debate around high speed rail.
June 2009
ABC News Story
ABC KGO 7 does a 3 minute report discussing the contributions of our study.
June 2009
BBC News Article
BBC News discusses our results in conjunction with our ERL publication.
June 2009
Institute of Physics Press Release
The IOP released a press release ahead of our ERL publication.
June 2009
Paradise Parking Lot Interview
Steve Barnett interviews Mikhail Chester regarding the ERL publication.
June 2009
CBC Radio Interview
Mikhail Chester is interviewed on the Canadian Broadcasting Centre Radio and discusses the results from the ERL publication.
June 2009
Environmentalresearchweb Story
Environmentalresearch web discusses our results in conjunction with our ERL publication.
June 2009
BBC World Service Radio
Mikhail Chester is interviewed on the BBC's World Service Radio and discusses the results from the ERL publication.
June 2009
Christian Science Monitor Story
Christian Science Monitor discusses our results in conjunction with our ERL publication.
June 2009
Green Car Congress Story
Green Car Congress discusses our results in conjunction with our ERL publication.
May 2009
Study Featured in Popular Science Magazine
Popular Science magazine discusses the study in the piece "How Green is Your Travel?" within the article "Planes, Trains, and Supersonic Spaceships."
November 25, 2008
Study Featured in Slate Magazine
Slate magazine discusses the study's final results and what that means for the average commuter.
October 17, 2008
UC Berkeley Transportation NewsBITS Publication
UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation's NewsBITS semesterly publication features study's final results.
August 29, 2008
UC Berkeley Transportation Seminar Presentation
Presented to the University's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering's Transportation Group's Friday Seminar series.
July, 2008
Study Featured in Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine
Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine features study's preliminary results.
February 16, 2007
UCTRC 2007 Conference Presentation
Preliminary analysis presented at the 2007 University of California Transportation Research Center Conference.