Built like a Mercedes (?)

Actually, its a little further than that to go from San Diego, CA to
Crescent City CA on Interstate 5... but don't let any Californians know
that I admitted this

Sounds like AMTRAK. A friend of mine travelled by AMTRAK last year, and
told me that they were 20 hours late arriving on the way to their
destination, but only 18 hours late on the return trip :-/

 

I seriously doubt those US numbers. Maybe if that is an average for ALL
citizens, including the vast number in New York, Chicago, Boston, and
San Francisco that don't even own cars... But I don't know. It just
feels wrong, based on the fact that my annual mileage is between 20k and
25k, and I have what is considered a rather short commute.

 

How on earth can you run a railway like that ?

Graham

 

Listen, if you don't believe the numbers, find your own and cite them
or STFU.

FloydR

 

I discovered that the US EPA uses a figure of 12,500 mi per annum for cars.
UK average mileage is certainly ~ 12,000 mi ( commonly accepted figure )

It seems that those who seek to find huge differences are simply mistaken.

I would expect those in the US living 'out in the wilds' to have higher
figures but statistically they are presumably a small insignificant minority.

Graham

 

Here are the figures for the USA which actually shows only 11400 miles per
car overall with midwestern states actually posting lower mileage at 10700
miles which goes very much against what has been implied by some posters
here, particularly Steve and Clare from Canada. Of course Canada might be at
variance but I doubt it. I have always assumed that mileage would not vary
greatly from one country to another because it is primarily governed by the
amount of *time* people feel comfortable devoting to what is essentially a
waste of time.

Here is a reference to a comprehensive and authoritative source
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/rtecs/chapter3.html

Huw

 

I have always assumed that mileage would not vary

I should say that I always like to quote machinery use, even cars, by hours
of use rather than mileage. I would guess that 'average' use doesn't vary
much outside of between 350 to 400 hours per year wherever you are. Now
let's see, 400 hours times say an average of 30mph is........ yes 12000
miles which sounds about right. Hell, I should be a transport planner or
something, my talents are wasted here LOL.
My Land Rover has done 150,000 miles at an average [which I worked out with
care some time ago] of 15mph is 10,000 hours over 21 years or 475 hours per
year which looks to be about right at about an hour and a third a day, every
day. To complete the same 10,000 hours of use my Land Cruiser will average
31mph so will have to total 310,000 miles. At present I complete less than
650 hours per year, which is long enough, to complete 20,000 miles
approximately so will need another 10 years of use to match the LR's total
use.

10,000 hours is 50 weeks of a full 40 hours solid for five years. Yeeeek!

Huw

 

just curious here. is anyone on alt.autos.dodge.trucks really paying
any attention to the absolutely insane fucking posts going on in this
thread anymore?

i mean, have we not had enough reminders of how totally fucking boring
our "friends" in the uk are?

just asking, you know?

 

Just think yourselves lucky that the US still has any 'friends'.

You're welcome.

Graham

 

yeah graham poohy, we'll just think that. yeah, we sure will.

 

Hey - to borrow a line from the movie 'Short Circuit', with friends like
you, who needs enemas?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

I guess you could revert to 'splendid isolationism' of course. Did they teach
you about that at your hick school ?

Btw. Check out who owns your foreign bases before dissing your 'friends' as
you call us.

Graham

 

Getting sore about a bit of well-intended criticism ?

Before any more idiotic Middle East adventurism you guys might do well to
see if your military can cope with it. Curent signs suggest Iraq alone is
pushing it. Of course being a bunch of pussies doesn't help.

Graham

 

If anyone was running it, it wouldn't be like that.

 

Only one problen, Huw - your "comprehensive and authorative" source is
12 years out of date. In that 12 years many farmers have had to resort
to working "off farm" to make ends meet. These farmers need to drive
significant distances to and from work - adding to the average
mileage. Also, the price of housing has skyrocketed in the major urban
centers - and more people are buying homes in the "outlying areas"
because that is all they can afford, and/or because they do not want
the inner city urban lifestyle. So they spend 5 hours a day commuting,
at average speeds just less than 80KM per hour (or 50 M per hour) - or
125 miles each way. It is a HORRENDOUS waste of time, but the high
paid jobs are in the city - and the homes and lifestyle these higher
earners want are not.
One thing that DOES tend to keep the average down is the fact many
households have more than one car - and even more than one car per
driver - so the "good" car, or the "toy" or the "RV" may get
significantly lower mileage. This brings down the average miles per
vehicle, but not the average miles per driver. One neighbour's
Corolla gets about 50 times the miles his Golf gets, because the Golf
sits in the garage most of the time, while the Corolla does the 60
mile (each way) commute 5 days a week. Any winter out-of town trips
are on the Corolla - the shiny polished Golf only goes out when the
sun is shining and the roads are dry.

 

You think only the US have more than 1 vehicle per houshold? You know I can
easily get the figures for you if you insist. But first...........
Latest US figures for 2001 can be found here. It is easy to work out that
the average has risen to around 11850 miles per vehicle
Cars average 11400,SUV's 13200, PUtrucks 12100, RV's 5900.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/rtecs/nhts_survey/2001/tablefiles/t0464(2005).pdf

If you must bullshit, you'd better make sure the figures back you up.

Huw






..

 

Here we are.
In the UK 25% of all housholds have two cars and a further 5% have three or
more. That is over 30% of all housholds with two cars or more while 26% have
no cars at all. I suspect that the greater number of 0 car housholds are in
cities where there is no room to park.

Huw

 

Fuel use comparison for train vs trucks, buses and motor cars.

http://www.transwatch.co.uk/transport-fact-sheet-5.htm


The index for all fact sheets can be found here.
http://www.transwatch.co.uk/fact-sheets.htm

A nice accurate summary can be found here
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CAF2C.htm

Huw

 

Hell, if you must bullshit, might as well get 2006 figures if you're going
to call it "the latest figures."

--
Max

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)

 

Well Huw, this says it all:


(a) A motorway coach would return 10 miles per gallon and contain an
average of 20 people
(b) Rail freight in lorries would provide 30 Tonne loads, full out
empty back, yielding an average of 15 Tonnes. Lorries may return 8 miles per
gallon on uncongested rural roads or 7 mpg on average.<<



First, they make an assumption. Big fat no no if yuo want accurate data.
Then, they ASSume that the motorcoach would have passengers both ways. Can't
do that if you won't do it for the railway. Both of them have periods of
time when they will be less than full.

But once again, you've bypassed the facts, and gone with assumptions. Just
because a motorcoach is used more frequently doesn't make it more efficient
at moving a load.

--
Max

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)