Transitioning to transit

More Canadians are taking transit. How many more? According to the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA), about 14 per cent more. Over the five years from 2004 to 2008, the number of regular service rides increased to 1.83 billion per year from 1.6 billion. That’s about five million Canadians per day riding transit. The increase from 2007 to 2008 alone was 63.8 million rides. That’s about 175,000 Canadians per day.

Now, the cynics will say this increase has been fuelled by the cost of downtown parking in Canada’s major cities, or even a lack of downtown parking in Canada’s major cities.

But we like to think it’s about concern for the environment. One bus full of people is the equivalent of taking 45 cars off the road. Consider this – if your round-trip commute is 32 kilometres, and you decide to take the bus every day and leave your car at home, you’d reduce of CO₂ emissions by 2.8 tonnes per year. This means the 45 cars replaced by a bus would represent a reduction of about 126 tonnes. And that’s only 45 cars.

But wait, there’s more

Today’s transit technology is a lot cleaner than the smoke-belching buses of yesteryear. According to the CUTA, clean diesel technology, a combination of more efficient fuel injection, particulate filters and catalytic converters used in conjunction with ultra low-sulphur diesel fuel, has reduced exhaust particulate matter 90 per cent since 1993. Ultra low sulphur diesel fuel has less than 15 parts per million sulphur.

Another innovation is biodiesel, fuel produced from oilseeds, vegetables or animal fat. It’s not really a new concept. Rudolf Diesel had vegetable oil in mind as a fuel when he invented the diesel engine in the 1890s. But for most of the engine’s history, it’s been run on petroleum-based fuels. Biodiesel can be blended with conventional diesel without major modifications. Common blends are B5 (five per cent biodiesel and 95 per cent conventional diesel) an B20 (20 per cent biodiesel and 80 per cent conventional diesel). Saskatoon Transit reported a 7.2 per cent reduction in GHGs using B5 with a canola-based biodiesel additive.

Perhaps the biggest boost to clean transit is the hybrid bus. Like hybrid cars, hybrid buses have two power sources: an internal combustion engine (usually diesel) and an electric motor that runs off batteries recharged by the diesel engine and regenerative braking. The electric motor gets the bus moving, and once underway, the diesel engine kicks in. At top speed, only the diesel provides power. The advantages of hybrid buses include about 30 per cent less fuel consumption and correspondingly fewer emissions.

Bus fleets in most major Canadian cities are a mix of clean diesel, biodiesel and hybrid buses and any remaining conventional gasoline or diesel buses are being replaced with their cleaner cousins.

So for a two-pronged assault on emissions, leave the car at home and take the bus.