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130 comments on Aviation and Oil Depletion

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ET on December 20, 2006 - 11:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Think ton-miles rather than passenger miles. You can find ample data to the effect that water borne transportation is far and away the most efficient way to move 'stuff.' This fact has played a huge part in how and why civilization evolved the way it did.
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JustZisGuy on December 21, 2006 - 1:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I'd love to see the ample data - can you point to a good place to start?  Wikipedia has nothing pertinent - the closest I can find is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency#Fuel_efficiency_in_transportation

I certainly believe that bulk transport is far more efficient by ship, but the original topic had to do with transportation of people.  Unless I'm mistaken it seems that ships are efficient for cargo and not for people, at least not on voyages long enough to require a lot of volume per person.

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ET on December 21, 2006 - 4:21pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Just googling around, here is one example.

You may be correct about passenger transport, as long as it is deemed necessary to have the speed of air transport. However, in the future, I suspect that the age-old practice of freight ships taking on paying passengers will become the only practical way of travelling overseas for all but the very wealthy.

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JustZisGuy on December 22, 2006 - 2:51pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Just googling around, here is one example.

Thanks!

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JustZisGuy on December 22, 2006 - 3:01pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Oh, one other point: apparently only 40% of the energy consumed by the QE2 is used for propulsion, the rest is used for hotel power (heating, lighting, etc).  40%!!  That, plus all the added mass per passenger, goes a long way toward explaining the relative inefficiency of transoceanic passenger ship service.
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130 comments on Aviation and Oil Depletion

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