Is The Bicycle the Health Care/Environmental Silver Bullet We’ve been Looking For?
This dirty painted hippie would certainly like to think so.
Ryan McGreal seems to think so as well and I’m half-inclined to agree with them both. Ryan points the big nasty finger at the car (I’m a car guy myself and don’t care to admit most of the following, but it does ring of truth) for promoting urban sprawl and a lifestyle that is less than active. This contributes to emotionally and monetarily costly lifestyle diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. It also contributes to spawned an almost laughably ineffecient infrastructure that was created without any long-term thought of the future, for instance, the average distance food travels from harvest to plate in the United States is 1500 miles(ref.)?
In what universe does all this make sense? Not a sustainable one…
This is a really great article that presents the bicycle as a sort of wonder machine. I like that because I like to bike. It’s efficient and it can be really fun.
What if someone invented a vehicle that had a long range and an average speed that matched cars in today’s city streets, took up very little space for use and storage, operated in a variety of conditions both on-road and off, and provided phenomenal fuel efficiency?
What if that vehicle already exists? I’m talking about the humble bicycle, long considered a child’s plaything in North America, but a possible key to our long-term survival.
Bicycles are not just children’s toys (RTH file photo)
As Ted Mitchell recently demonstrated, “The bicycle is the most efficient form of personal transportation ever invented.” He explains:
People of average fitness can achieve 20 km/h with an average power input of about 1/10 hp, or 75 watts. This level of exertion is minimal and can be kept up for hours.
Leg muscles are about 20 percent efficient, so a five kilometre ride consumes 80 kilocalories, or about one small apple. If you are wondering, this translates into a fuel efficiency of 595 km/l (1,400 mpg) of gasoline. Apples are renewable and clean; gasoline is neither.
He makes a lot of good points, but there are a few stumbling blocks here and there.
Further, cars waste a lot of time racing from light to light. Bicycles often end up arriving at intersections behind cars, just as the light is turning green.
Even though it does feel that way, I find a statement like this a bit shallow, statistically speaking. But the majority of the arguments are well thought out and it’s a good read with some interesting comments and suggestions (”bike escalators”?) in the comments about the article.
Find out why you should be wearing spandex and a hard plastic hat after the jump!
Can The Bicycle Save Civilization? - Raise the Hammer (pops)
Technorati Tags: bicycle, environmental, obesity, disease, transportation, modern, urban
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POSTED IN: Cycling, Technology, Your Body, Your Mind
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