On Jun 4, 8:21*pm, "Bob F" wrote:
Larry The Snake Guy wrote:

I suspect trains (even cargo trains) also have a huge aerodynamic
advantage over cars due to having very small frontal area relative to
weight.

They also tend to have less steep hills.

It is incredibly difficult to make complex arguments about some things
-- this being one.

For example, not only do they have less steep hills, but they don't
stop at road crossings -- but cars do. So if you are tootling along
in your jalopy, and a train comes by, you must stop for it. You wait,
then keep going. They lowers YOUR gas mileage. But it isn't YOUR
fault. One could argue that YOUR wasted gas was an externality of the
train and YOUR gas waste should really be added to the train's fuel
usage, not yours. Therefore your real gas mileage should be higher
and the train's should be lower. Think of the mileage a train would
get it it had to stop for cars at every crossing.