Passenger Transportation

Passenger transportation includes small cars, large cars, passenger light trucks, buses (inter-city, public transit and school buses), passenger air transport, passenger rail transport and motorcycles and accounts for 15.6 per cent of the energy used in Canada.

Gasoline provides 76.6 per cent of the energy required for passenger transportation, followed by aviation turbo fuel at 17.3 percent. Other fuel sources account for about six per cent.

New transportation technologies that both mitigate potentially harmful emissions and increase fuel economy are being developed at a rapid pace. These technologies not only help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation, they also reduce the impact of soaring oil prices.

When automobiles were first being developed, internal combustion engines, steam engines and electric motors competed for market share. Over time the internal combustion engine became the standard. In recent years, however, concern over the environment has led to the demand for cleaner, more fuel efficient vehicles.

The two most common options are clean diesel cars and hybrid cars. Diesel has long been considered a ‘dirty’ fuel, but recent advances have created clean diesel technology, a combination of cleaner diesel fuel, including biodiesel, more efficient engines and more effective emissions control equipment.