4 ms·

Given a safe, flat road you can't beat a bicycle for energy efficiency and cost: http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/whats-the-worlds-most-energy-efficient-vehicle

Given a safe, flat road you can't beat a bicycle for energy efficiency and cost: http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/whats-the-worlds-most-energy-efficient-vehicle-a-bicycle.html http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/whats-the-worlds-most-energy...

iamgopal 15y ago
And Given a sufficient long journey, Jets are more efficient.
- sp332 15y ago
  Given a sufficiently long journey and enough people going from the same starting place to the same destination at the same time :)
read_wharf 15y ago
If those are your measures. But a car can very easily beat a bicycle on time efficiency, assuming you're going more than half a mile. A car can also beat a bicycle on opportunity exposure. Both statements are illustrated by mine and many others' commutes. I drive 40 minutes each way, because I couldn't find a job here, but I could find a job there. I'd love to have found a job here, but at the moment my job is there. The job there would have been unthinkable without a car. Yes, I could ride the bus - train - bus, but it would take hours. For me, a bicycle would never get me there. One of the many things that's holding back a national economic recovery is that some people can find jobs but can't sell their house to move to the new job. There's not enough movement and flexibility. In my metro area, I have the opportunity to take any job that I can find, from ten to sixty minutes car radius. That means I eat. That comes from flexibility.
- cpt1138 15y ago
  Hmm, you spend 40 minutes driving. How much time do you spend in the gym? What if you rode a bicycle for 1.5 hours and skipped both the driving and the gym? The problem with a car in your situation is contextual. You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes of driving concentrating on driving. Not talking on cell phones, not texting, not talking, not even listening to music but DRIVING. The context of where you are driving "probably" changes too, highway vs. city but I'm guessing that sometimes switching your driving patterns lags a bit after you get off that highway offramp. On a bicycle or public transportation, the context is completely different. At the very least on a bicycle you are exercising (we can get into the difficulties later of urban riding). But there are other things, how great you feel, the fantastic views, the feelings of elation, the feelings of extreme accomplishments before the day even starts. On public transportation you can read, operate your computer, talk to your commute neighbor or get other things done. FWIW, I draw a 20 mile radius around my house and only look for jobs in that circle. I can figure out how to bike 40 miles a day.
  - burgerbrain 15y ago
    If more work places had showers, that might be a workable solution. Also: "I drive 40 minutes each way" 1hr20min of driving is not going to translate into 1hr30min of biking, with the only possible exception being if you spent the entire car ride in gridlock or parking lots. And: "I couldn't find a job here, but I could find a job there". That you can find a job within 20 miles does not help him. "You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes of driving concentrating on driving. Not talking on cell phones, not texting, not talking, not even listening to music but DRIVING." Yeah, and I'm not supposed to eat pizza or drink so much...
    - read_wharf 15y ago
      There actually are showers at work, and a little gym, and an outdoor exercise station park. There's nothing stopping me from using all that except my interlocking schedule and my current physical issues. But mostly time. My commute is in the "good" direction. My average speed is probably 40 or 45 mph, mostly freeway, and the opposite direction is often at a standstill. So it's a fair distance. I'm all for finding jobs near home, and I moved where I am because there are a lot of jobs in the area. But circumstances put me there for now, not here. When I used to work here I would walk 40 minutes to work, and I liked that a lot. "You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes ... driving." I used to bike to work when I lived in Seattle, and Port Orchard before that, and I can definitely understand the wish of any biker that drivers would hang up the cheeseburger and just DRIVE. :)
    - benjiweber 15y ago
      People who don't cycle much often think showers are necessary. In reality once you get fit you don't sweat much (I get far sweatier on the tube than cycling), and if you're overheating you can always slow down slightly. * Shower before leaving then you get rid of the dirt + bacteria that makes the sweat smell. * Wear clean lycra - this wicks sweat away before it has a chance to start smelling. In London my cycling commute of 1hr would take over 2hrs by car, and 1hr15min by train. Cycling is often the quickest way. You also combine exercise and commuting time which leads to a significant overall time saving. I don't feel the need to do a lot of other exercise after cycling 200 miles a week.
- v21 15y ago
  And that's the case in large part because your environment is optimized for driving. For me to get a car, I'd have to pay a fair bit more in rent to have somewhere to park, and I still wouldn't be able to drive to work (there's nowhere to park). And even if I could I'd have to pay £9 a day to enter the city. (Congestion charge zone, in London). But all of central, and lots of not-so-central London is within an hour's tube ride. And as far as cycling goes, there's a lot within a 60 minutes cycling radius from here. Of course, housing prices are atrocious, but that's an entirely separate discussion.
  - read_wharf 15y ago
    I envy you your tube, and I'd be up in that every day if we had one.
    - v21 15y ago
      Hey, actually I moved so I could walk into work every morning. It takes me 20 minutes.
uvdiv 15y ago
You also can't beat a commercial-sized bucket of lard for caloric efficiency and cost.
archangel_one 15y ago
One of the main reasons for that is that it's an awful lot slower. I live about 40 miles from work at the moment, which I cover in about 50 minutes door-to-door; there is absolutely no way I could achieve that on a bike. I'd guess that might take me 3-4 hours each way, so hence the bike is unfortunately not an option, regardless of its energy efficiency or cost.

iamgopal 15y ago

And Given a sufficient long journey, Jets are more efficient.

sp332 15y ago
Given a sufficiently long journey and enough people going from the same starting place to the same destination at the same time :)

read_wharf 15y ago

If those are your measures. But a car can very easily beat a bicycle on time efficiency, assuming you're going more than half a mile. A car can also beat a bicycle on opportunity exposure. Both statements are illustrated by mine and many others' commutes. I drive 40 minutes each way, because I couldn't find a job here, but I could find a job there. I'd love to have found a job here, but at the moment my job is there. The job there would have been unthinkable without a car. Yes, I could ride the bus - train - bus, but it would take hours. For me, a bicycle would never get me there. One of the many things that's holding back a national economic recovery is that some people can find jobs but can't sell their house to move to the new job. There's not enough movement and flexibility. In my metro area, I have the opportunity to take any job that I can find, from ten to sixty minutes car radius. That means I eat. That comes from flexibility.

cpt1138 15y ago
Hmm, you spend 40 minutes driving. How much time do you spend in the gym? What if you rode a bicycle for 1.5 hours and skipped both the driving and the gym? The problem with a car in your situation is contextual. You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes of driving concentrating on driving. Not talking on cell phones, not texting, not talking, not even listening to music but DRIVING. The context of where you are driving "probably" changes too, highway vs. city but I'm guessing that sometimes switching your driving patterns lags a bit after you get off that highway offramp. On a bicycle or public transportation, the context is completely different. At the very least on a bicycle you are exercising (we can get into the difficulties later of urban riding). But there are other things, how great you feel, the fantastic views, the feelings of elation, the feelings of extreme accomplishments before the day even starts. On public transportation you can read, operate your computer, talk to your commute neighbor or get other things done. FWIW, I draw a 20 mile radius around my house and only look for jobs in that circle. I can figure out how to bike 40 miles a day.
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  If more work places had showers, that might be a workable solution. Also: "I drive 40 minutes each way" 1hr20min of driving is not going to translate into 1hr30min of biking, with the only possible exception being if you spent the entire car ride in gridlock or parking lots. And: "I couldn't find a job here, but I could find a job there". That you can find a job within 20 miles does not help him. "You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes of driving concentrating on driving. Not talking on cell phones, not texting, not talking, not even listening to music but DRIVING." Yeah, and I'm not supposed to eat pizza or drink so much...
  - read_wharf 15y ago
    There actually are showers at work, and a little gym, and an outdoor exercise station park. There's nothing stopping me from using all that except my interlocking schedule and my current physical issues. But mostly time. My commute is in the "good" direction. My average speed is probably 40 or 45 mph, mostly freeway, and the opposite direction is often at a standstill. So it's a fair distance. I'm all for finding jobs near home, and I moved where I am because there are a lot of jobs in the area. But circumstances put me there for now, not here. When I used to work here I would walk 40 minutes to work, and I liked that a lot. "You are supposed to spend that 40 minutes ... driving." I used to bike to work when I lived in Seattle, and Port Orchard before that, and I can definitely understand the wish of any biker that drivers would hang up the cheeseburger and just DRIVE. :)
  - benjiweber 15y ago
    People who don't cycle much often think showers are necessary. In reality once you get fit you don't sweat much (I get far sweatier on the tube than cycling), and if you're overheating you can always slow down slightly. * Shower before leaving then you get rid of the dirt + bacteria that makes the sweat smell. * Wear clean lycra - this wicks sweat away before it has a chance to start smelling. In London my cycling commute of 1hr would take over 2hrs by car, and 1hr15min by train. Cycling is often the quickest way. You also combine exercise and commuting time which leads to a significant overall time saving. I don't feel the need to do a lot of other exercise after cycling 200 miles a week.
v21 15y ago
And that's the case in large part because your environment is optimized for driving. For me to get a car, I'd have to pay a fair bit more in rent to have somewhere to park, and I still wouldn't be able to drive to work (there's nowhere to park). And even if I could I'd have to pay £9 a day to enter the city. (Congestion charge zone, in London). But all of central, and lots of not-so-central London is within an hour's tube ride. And as far as cycling goes, there's a lot within a 60 minutes cycling radius from here. Of course, housing prices are atrocious, but that's an entirely separate discussion.
- read_wharf 15y ago
  I envy you your tube, and I'd be up in that every day if we had one.
  - v21 15y ago
    Hey, actually I moved so I could walk into work every morning. It takes me 20 minutes.

uvdiv 15y ago

You also can't beat a commercial-sized bucket of lard for caloric efficiency and cost.

archangel_one 15y ago

One of the main reasons for that is that it's an awful lot slower. I live about 40 miles from work at the moment, which I cover in about 50 minutes door-to-door; there is absolutely no way I could achieve that on a bike. I'd guess that might take me 3-4 hours each way, so hence the bike is unfortunately not an option, regardless of its energy efficiency or cost.