Page 139 - Introduction to Tourism

The American Bus Association (ABA) reports that

there are about 39,000 commercial motorcoaches in

use for charters, tours, regular route service, and
special operations in North America. The buses carry

over 631 million passengers a year. Carriers involved

in the regular - route part of the industry operate
approximately eight thousand to ten thousand over -

the - road intercity coaches. Buses perform a wide

range of services, with half of industry mileage on

scheduled intercity services, one - third on charters,
and the

rest on tours, private commutes, airport shuttles, and

others.
In 2006, motorcoaches were driven about 2.4 billion

miles, with the average bus traveling 62,094 miles.

More than half of motorcoach passengers are students

and senior citizens.
Intercity bus service is the most energy - efficient

passenger transportation mode in the United States

when compared to all others by measuring passenger
miles per gallon. On average, the motorcoach industry

provides 184.4 passenger miles per gallon of fuel,

compared to the single - passenger automobile at 27.2
or transit bus at 32.5 passenger miles per gallon. The

study titled “ Comparisons of Energy Use and

Emissions from Different Transportation Modes, ”

139