11.1 Lesson 11 Introduction

Welcome to Lesson 11

Transportation is a major part of everyday life. It helps people travel to work, school, and stores, and it also moves food, products, and raw materials across the country and around the world. Because transportation is so important, it also uses a large amount of energy.

In the United States, most transportation energy still comes from petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. However, transportation is changing. Today, we also see hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, biofuels, natural gas vehicles, and other advanced transportation technologies. At the same time, different types of transportation—such as cars, trucks, trains, ships, barges, and airplanes—use energy in different ways and have different impacts on efficiency, cost, and emissions.

In this lesson, you will explore the major types of transportation, the fuels they use, and how energy is converted to move people and goods. You will also examine vehicle efficiency, cost to drive, and how transportation choices affect energy use in the United States.

Lesson Objectives: 

• Identify the major types of transportation, including light-duty vehicles, trucks, rail, water transportation, and aircraft.
• Explain how internal combustion engines convert fuel into motion through the four-stroke cycle.
• Compare gasoline, diesel, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles based on how they operate and the fuels they use.
• Describe several alternative and advanced transportation fuels, including biodiesel, ethanol, natural gas, hydrogen, and propane.
• Explain the purpose of vehicle efficiency standards such as CAFE standards.
• Calculate or compare vehicle cost to drive using fuel price and fuel efficiency information.