Green Manolo

With various holidays on the horizon, I thought it would be fun to chat a bit about green travel. But truthfully, it wasn’t the holidays that got me thinking about green travel, but rather Coach America, a charter bus company here in the U.S. On their web site, they make a big show out of how green they are:

“A bus, by its very nature, is green! … Motorcoaches currently provide 184 passenger miles per gallon (MPG), more than double the second most fuel-efficient sector, commuter rail at 86 passenger MPG. … Coach America is using biodiesel in Portland, OR and other cities. … Each motorcoach has the potential of removing 55 autos from the highway.”

That all sounds very good, if you’re traveling on Coach America out of Portland, but what if you’re hopping the Fung Wah in New York City? Fung Wah is not biodiesel-friendly and their fleet is definitely not fuel efficient, based on their maintenance records. But what IS the greenest way to travel overall? Train? Bus? Car with four buddies? Obviously, walking and biking are *the* greenest ways to travel, hands down, but they doesn’t get you very far, very fast.

Now the important thing to know is that some sources measure green travel in terms of emissions and some measure it in terms of passenger miles per gallon. Some even measure eco-friendliness in terms of BTUs. On top of that, things change pretty dramatically depending on whether you’re traveling with a couple of friends or relatives. Not to mention the make and age of your car, bus, train, or aircraft; how much baggage you have; how many stops you make along the way; ground and air congestion; wind and weather; what kind of fuel you’re using; and dozens of other factors.

Add it all up, and it can be pretty difficult to figure out what’s the greenest way to get to your Christmas dinner or Hanukkah party.

There are sites that aim to help, though. Trip Footprint – currently in beta – will calculate the travel CO2 emissions for your trip for various transportation methods and routes – not taking into account infrastructure costs or secondary travel. I decided to calculate the greenest way for my family of three to travel from Boston to Florida, and according to the site, it’s driving in a hybrid. Green, for sure, but still not something I’m willing to attempt with a toddler (another element of my green threshold).

On the other hand, if I examine the same trip using passengers per gallon – basically, efficiency – modern, fuel-efficient charter buses become the greenest option, mainly because you’re traveling with 50 other people on a packed trip. Trains are the second greenest option – if, that is, there is even a train hub where you’re going.

But what if you’re traveling solo? For trips of more than 500 miles, if you’re traveling alone or with just one other person, it’s greener to fly direct in coach than to drive, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. But again, that packed bus and the train may still the best green travel options, if not at all practical for many or even most people. Unless, that is, you include infrastructure carbon costs for building and road and track maintenance and secondary travel that results from the need to get from a bus or train station to one’s final destination.

Green travel, gah. I feel like this is another one of those areas that it’s impossible to calculate the greenest possible option! How do you approach green travel?

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 at 5:39 am by Christa and is filed under Green Holidays, Green Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.