Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Program details
Page 3: Determining costs
Page 4: Reducing your impact
True Cost of Travel - Determining Costs
The payment amounts suggested on the previous page are average figures used to make the program easy to use. Here is more information on how we arrived at those figures:
The numbers are all based on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by each type of vehicle. CO2 is the most important contributing agent to global warming.
Automobile Travel. Approximately 20 pounds of CO2 are produced for each gallon of gasoline burned or 22 pounds per gallon of diesel. We suggest a payment of 12 cents per gallon. If you prefer to calculate your payment per mile, just divide 12 cents by the number of miles per gallon your car or truck gets. More people in the car, such as in a carpool, will reduce the amount per person. Just take the total calculated for the car and divide by the number of people.
Air Travel. Air travel is a significant contributor to global warming, both because of the CO2 emissions per mile, and by the fact that plane trips on average are for long distances. Short air trips are less efficient than long ones, due to higher fuel use for taking off and landing. This is a good reason to consider bus or train for shorter trips. We suggest a contribution of $.0053 per passenger mile for air travel. This is an average. Short trips would actually be more and long trips would be less.
Bus and Train. Bus and train are potentially more efficient than car or air travel, but only if they are relatively full. Empty seats are not efficient. Commuter buses are less efficient than intercity buses, because of their lower speeds and frequent stops and starts. We suggest contributions of $.0024 per passenger mile for train, $.001 per passenger mile for intercity bus, and $.004 per passenger mile for commuter bus.
Our True cost of Travel program is essentially a form of carbon offsetting. Carbon offsetting is somewhat controversial and can be misused. A good discussion of some of the issues can be found on David Suzuki's website. The important thing to remember is that you should reduce your carbon footprint as much as possible first, and only then consider offsetting any carbon use that remains.
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Program details
Page 3: Determining costs
Page 4: Reducing your impact