The Economic Evaluation of the Development of Compressed Natural Gas Utilization for the Bus Navigation of the City of Tehran

High population density, high traffic, air pollution and allocation of millions of dollars of subsidies for energy and fuel of the transportation sector are all amongst the major problems of Tehran metropolitan city. Through appropriate planning for the development of public transportation navigation and conservation of energy sources in the urban transportation, some of these problems may be solved or reduced. Due to the per capita space that buses occupy, these are the most suitable means for urban transportation navigation in short term and medium term programs. Gas oil and compressed natural gas are the main fuels for buses. Due to the low share of buses in the air pollution of the City of Tehran (3 – 5%), also based on the experiences of some other countries, it seems that the compressed natural gas is the best fuel for buses. The cost – benefit analysis using the net current value method regarding the natural gas and gasoline as the main fuel for the bus navigation in Tehran is illustrative of the fact that in case of increased cost of oil to more than 50 $ per gallon the reduced cost of gas –fueled vehicles and finally utilization of the income resulted from excess gasoline for development of bus navigation of Tehran, the natural gas is recommended as the suitable substitute for the gas oil, for development and renovation of bus navigation in Tehran.