The energy consumption of public transit under rural and suburban conditions
¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Engineering, Kamýcká 129, CZ16521 Prague, Czech Republic; *Correspondence: lukesm@tf.czu.cz
Abstract:
The aim of paper is to investigate an energy consumption of public transit focused on regular commuting from suburban locations. Surveyed suburban settlements have become a part of ‘urban sprawl’ process in the suburbanized hinterland of Prague’s city. The transport links are strongly influenced by the catchment area of Prague’s city that has a dominant position in surveyed region and the most of the existing transport links are carried out in relation to the Prague’s city on radially oriented roads. The traffic intensities are often on a roads’ full capacity during peak hours or the roads are even congested alongside a ride to the city. The 10 suburban settlements were selected for the purpose of the fuel consumption investigation. Authors have focused on the journeys carried out during the morning peak hours of the ordinary working days when the transport demands are saturated. The fuel consumption investigation has involved the journeys by public transit (commuter bus) and by passenger car. Obtained results have proved possibilities of significant fuel consumption savings under condition that the bus transit preference would be effectively used. The energy efficiency of bus public transit allows to achieve the similar energy consumption per passenger as an ordinary passenger car has at a low occupancy rate of bus.
Key words:
fuel consumption, passenger car, peak hours, suburbanization., transit