Transit Bus Fuel Economy Research

A new method of comparing the fuel economy of transit buses has been demonstrated. The method is based on SAE J1321 (1)*. The SAE test procedure was combined with the Transit Coach Design Operating Profile Duty Cycle from the “White Book” (2) and the test track configuration to produce MPG data for the commuter, arterial, and central business district phases of the duty cycle and MPG data for the combined or overall test cycle. The resulting test procedure makes possible the determination of MPG on a wide range of revenue duty cycles and could be useful in calculating life-cycle cost of transit buses. The six 40-foot buses used in this series of tests were produced by six different manufacturers and featured different drive configurations, curb weights, and seating capacities.