Estimating Gas Consumption at Drive-Thru Restaurants and Businesses in California

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to determine how much gasoline is consumed by vehicles while idling at drive-thru restaurants in the state of California. Methods/Materials I collected data from 98 drive-thru restaurants throughout California. I took notes on how many vehicles were waiting in line, time of day, location, type of restaurant, and vehicle size. I also collected continuous information from the McDonalds in Arcata over the period the restaurant was open. I used these data to interpolate continuous data for the state observations. I did an experiment to determine the gas consumption rate for idling vehicles. I used the Internet to research the number of drive-thru restaurants and yearly gas consumption by vehicles. Rate of gas consumption was determined using average line length, number of restaurants, and idle gas consumption rate. Results Gas-consumption rates for idling vehicles ranges from 0.20 to 0.55 gal/hr. There are about 8500 drive-thru businesses in California. The average line length (averaged over a 24 hour period) is 1.6 vehicles. Conclusions/Discussion The average idle gas-consumption rate referenced in many studies is 1.0 gal/hr., and appears to be too high based on my results. About 32 million gallons of gas are consumed yearly by vehicles while idling at drive-thru businesses. However, California vehicles consume over 14.9 billion gallons per year, and consumption by idling vehicles represents only 0.2 percent of the total. Although this is a small portion, discouraging this, and other wasteful practices (such as idling at traffic lights), could collectively reduce energy consumption.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2007 Environmental Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1003

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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