Chart above from page 128 of David JC MacKay’s book “Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air”. (Thanks to FJ for the link!)

Aside from the energy usage of all these other modes of transportation, this chart echos my earlier ad-hoc and not-to-be-trusted calculation that an electric car uses about 1/4 or 1/5 the energy of a gas-powered car.  It also shows that an electric car with one or two passengers uses more energy than a “full” electric train.  Of course, electric trains aren’t always going to be full, so the “per passenger” number is actually a bit higher.

So now that we have a bit better sense of how these modes of transport relate to each other, lets introduce lifestyle back into the equation.   Does living in an urban environment, taking the train, biking and walking, use more or less energy than using an electric car on a regular basis?  Because while biking and walking will always use minimal energy, a half-full train can ratchet up your daily energy consumption pretty quickly.

Basically, which will use less total energy: a small, walkable town on a mass transit line or a subdivision serviced by electric cars?