ABOUT THIS PARAMETER

vehicle occupancy

A measure of how many people typically travel together in a given transport mode during an average trip.

Used to calculate:personal miles by mode

Varies by: transportmode and lifestyle

Used transportmode lifestyle Reference Location: Ecosystem
(study period)
Value Units Notes
* Airplane Average American BTS 2009- Summary: Passenger Cargo Aircraft US: all () 72.84 persons / vehicle This value represents an average occupancy for both domestic and international flights.
* Airplane Average Earthling Tyler 2012 IATA Annual Report Wordlwide: Over all () 78.3 persons / vehicle We assume an average aircraft size of 100 passengers. The 2012 load factor worldwide was 78.3%.
* Airplane Average New Yorker BTS 2009- Summary: Passenger Cargo Aircraft US: all () 72.84 persons / vehicle We assume the vehicle occupancy for the average New Yorker in airplanes is the same as that of the average American.
* Airplane Eco-conscious Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 0 persons / vehicle We assume eco-hipsters eschew air travel.
* Airplane Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Bicycle Average American Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Bicycle Average Earthling Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Bicycle Average New Yorker Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Bicycle Eco-conscious Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Bicycle Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Bus Average American NHTS 2009 National Household Travel Survey: Our Nation's Travel US: All (2009) 10.68 persons / vehicle highway bus
Bus Average American NHTS 2009 National Household Travel Survey: Our Nation's Travel US: All (2009) 13.23 persons / vehicle trolley bus
* Bus Average Earthling Fulton & Eads 2004 The IEA/SMP Transportation Model Global: Human settlements () 17.66 persons / vehicle Calculated in two steps. First we calculated the average load factors for regions for buses and mini-buses, weighted by passenger-kilometers travelled for each mode. Second we averaged regions together to obtain the global value, weighted by the population of each region. Original load factors are for 2000.
Bus Average Earthling Newman 2000- Sustainable Transportation and Global Cities global: urban landscape () 13.83 persons / vehicle
* Bus Average New Yorker NYMTC 2012 New York Metropolitan Transit Council New York City: All () 23.05 persons / vehicle
* Bus Eco-conscious NYMTC 2012 New York Metropolitan Transit Council New York City: All () 23.05 persons / vehicle
* Bus Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Ferry Average American NHTS 2009 National Household Travel Survey: Our Nation's Travel US: All (2009) 107.8 persons / vehicle
* Ferry Average Earthling Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 107.8 persons / vehicle No data found. Assumed to be the same as the average American.
* Ferry Average New Yorker NYMTC 2009 - Regional Transportation at a Glance 2007 New York City: Urban landscape (2007) 494 persons / vehicle This value was found by dividing passenger miles traveled by vehicle miles traveled on the Staten Island Ferry (this data was not available for other ferries in NYC).
* Ferry Eco-conscious NYMTC 2012 New York Metropolitan Transit Council New York City: All () 494 persons / vehicle
* Ferry Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Personal motor vehicle Average American Davis et al. 2011 Transportation Energy Databook US: All (2000s) 1.67 persons / vehicle
* Personal motor vehicle Average Earthling Fulton & Eads 2004 The IEA/SMP Transportation Model Global: Human settlements () 1.67 persons / vehicle Calculated in two steps. First we calculated the average load factors for regions for light duty vehicles, 2-wheelers, and 3-wheelers, weighted by passenger-kilometers travelled for each mode. Second we averaged regions together to obtain the global value, weighted by the population of each region. Original load factors are for 2000.
Personal motor vehicle Average Earthling OECD/IEA 2005 - Saving Oil in a Hurry Global: All () 1.15 persons / vehicle This value is the average of the different listed regions' average commute vehicle occupancy.
Personal motor vehicle Average Earthling OECD/IEA 2005 - Saving Oil in a Hurry Global: All () 1.45 persons / vehicle This value is the average of the different listed regions' average urban vehicle occupancy.
Personal motor vehicle Average Earthling Newman 2000- Sustainable Transportation and Global Cities global: urban landscape () 1.52 persons / vehicle
* Personal motor vehicle Average New Yorker NYMTC 2012 New York Metropolitan Transit Council New York City: All () 1.33119 persons / vehicle
* Personal motor vehicle Eco-conscious Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 0 persons / vehicle Eco-hipsters wouldn't get caught dead in a car.
* Personal motor vehicle Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Streetcar Average American American Public Transportation Association 2011 Public Transportation Fact Book USA: Transportation ecosystems (2009) 24.62 persons / vehicle
* Streetcar Average Earthling OECD/IEA 2005 - Saving Oil in a Hurry Global: All () 34.84 persons / vehicle To calculate this value we first averaged the tram seat occupancy of the four regions listed. We then assumed that there are 52 seats on a tram (this is the number of seats on a M5000). We multiplied the average seat occupancy by the number of seats to get this value.
* Streetcar Average New Yorker American Public Transportation Association 2011 Public Transportation Fact Book USA: Transportation ecosystems (2009) 24.62 persons / vehicle
* Streetcar Eco-conscious American Public Transportation Association 2011 Public Transportation Fact Book USA: Transportation ecosystems (2009) 24.62 persons / vehicle
* Streetcar Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Subway Average American American Public Transportation Association 2011 Public Transportation Fact Book USA: Transportation ecosystems (2009) 25.2 persons / vehicle
* Subway Average Earthling OECD/IEA 2005 - Saving Oil in a Hurry Global: All () 51 persons / vehicle To calculate this value we first averaged the metro seat occupancy of the three regions listed. We then assumed that there are 68 seats on a metro (this is the number of seats on a Breda 3000-Series). We multiplied the average seat occupancy by the number of seats to get this value.
* Subway Average New Yorker NYMTC 2009 - Regional Transportation at a Glance 2007 New York City: Urban landscape (2007) 28.456 persons / vehicle This value was computed by dividing the passenger miles traveled by the vehicle miles traveled for total rail rapid transit in 2007.
* Subway Eco-conscious NYMTC 2009 - Regional Transportation at a Glance 2007 New York City: Urban landscape (2007) 28.456 persons / vehicle
* Subway Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Taxi Average American Summary of average auto trip occupancy from NHTS 2009 US: All () 2.0302 persons / vehicle We added the three taxicab sums of weighted travel day records (WTTRDFIN) in order to compute the total number of trips by taxicab. Next we computed the total number of persons who traveled by taxicab by multiplying each of the three trip occupancies of taxicabs with their corresponding sums of WTTRDFIN. We then divided the total number of persons by the total number of trips to receive the vehicle occupancy value.
* Taxi Average Earthling Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 2.03 persons / vehicle No data found. Assumed to be the same as the average American
* Taxi Average New Yorker NYMTC 2012 New York Metropolitan Transit Council New York City: All () 1.512619 persons / vehicle
* Taxi Eco-conscious Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 0 persons / vehicle Eco-hipsters only take taxis as a last resort, when their bike has a flat and its pouring rain outside.
* Taxi Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Train Average American NHTS 2009 National Household Travel Survey: Our Nation's Travel US: All (2009) 35.33 persons / vehicle commuter rail
Train Average American NHTS 2009 National Household Travel Survey: Our Nation's Travel US: All (2009) 154.42 persons / vehicle intercity/Amtrak
* Train Average Earthling OECD/IEA 2005 - Saving Oil in a Hurry Global: All () 46.46 persons / vehicle To calculate this value we first averaged the suburban rail seat occupancy of the four regions listed. We then assumed that there are 101 seats on a tram (this is the number of seats on a M7). We multiplied the average seat occupancy by the number of seat to get this value.
* Train Average New Yorker NYMTC 2009 - Regional Transportation at a Glance 2007 New York City: Urban landscape (2007) 36.726 persons / vehicle This value was computed by dividing passenger miles travled by vehicle miles traveled for total downstate suburban rail.
* Train Eco-conscious NYMTC 2009 - Regional Transportation at a Glance 2007 New York City: Urban landscape (2007) 36.726 persons / vehicle We are assuming the same train occupancy as Average New Yorkers for this lifestyle. We computed this value by dividing the passenger miles traveled by the vehicle miles travled for total downstate suburban rail.
* Train Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 0 persons / vehicle
* Walking Average American Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Walking Average Earthling Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Walking Average New Yorker Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Walking Eco-conscious Assumed New York City: Urban Area () 1 persons / vehicle
* Walking Lenape Person Assumed New York City: Mannahatta () 1 persons / vehicle

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