Could many small cars emit less NOx and other true pollutants than public transport vehicles?

Question

More often than not, I have witnessed large, 40-thousand pound city buses racing around, with only one or two people on board--- one being the driver! These behemoths (which are seldom turned off) seem to all run on diesel fuel. Diesel is great efficient stuff and all but wouldn't it be better to have many tiny electric cars transporting the commuters and daytrippers? By small, I mean a car that carries no more than 2 people and is the weight of a large motorcycle. The little electric cars could be charged at night when power is cheap. I am not so sure that public transport is the most efficient and cleanest way to go! What do you think?

Answer 1

Thanks to catalytic converters almost all vehicles put out only a tiny fraction of what past vehicles did. This includes diesels, heavy trucks etc.

So it could be possible one bus may put out less emissions than 20 cars. But mainly that one bus burns much less fuel than those 20 cars combined.

Lastly a number of public buses run on natural gas which is a lot better than gasoline or diesel in terms of emissions.