April 19, 2014 – 3 Days until Earth Day…
Bicycles use 2% as much energy as cars and cost less than 3% as much to purchase
Who is on Board
- The city of Los Angeles, California, has more cars today than all of China.
- In the United States 50% of car trips are less than two miles. Currently less than 1% of trips in this country are made by bicycle.
- Some cities are doing a better job than others; Boulder, CO is already at 21%, Davis, CA is at 20%. Minneapolis is at 2% – well above national average.
- In the Netherlands, 40% of all trips are made by bicycle, and a third of the people ride their bike to work every day. In China, at least half of all urban vehicle trips are made on two wheels.
- 1 out of 74,000 people in China own a car. India has 30 million bicycles – 25 times the number of motorized vehicles there. Worldwide 1 out of 1,000 people own a car.
- In Los Angeles there are more cars than people, including babies and people too old to drive.
- On average American’s spend (either as a driver or passenger) 18 and a half hours a week in their cars.
The Comparison
- 104 million bicycles are made ever year, 44 million automobiles.
- Bicycles are a more cost-effective mode of transportation when compared to personal motor vehicles and public transportation. A bike is free to operate and maintenance is inexpensive.
- Estimated cost of constructing one parking space in a paved lot: $2,200.
- Estimated cost of constructing one parking space in a garage: $12,500.
- Number of bikes that can be parked in one car parking space in a paved lot: 6 – 20.
- Bicycles also cause little, if any, wear and tear on roadways.
Environmental Implications
- Overall and especially during day-to-day use, bikes are a very green way of getting around. Cyclists don’t consume any non-renewable fossil fuels, and they don’t produce air pollution or other harmful emissions.
- Motor vehicles are responsible for about 1/3 of global oil use, but for nearly 2/3 of oil use in the United States.
- Motorized vehicles guzzle millions of barrels of oil each day in the form of gas and diesel. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that approximately 10 million barrels of oil were used each day in 2010.
- 2.8 billion liters of lubricating oil, 250 million tires, 138 tons of lead from discarded auto batteries, and 9 million passenger cars are disposed of each year in the United States alone.
- Motor vehicles produce more than 30% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, more than 80% of carbon monoxide, and about half of the nation’s nitrogen oxide emissions each year.
- Automobile air conditioners are the single largest source of chlorofluorocarbons that are responsible, in part, for destroying the earth’s protective ozone layer.
- According to the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, 25% of all trips are made within a mile of the home, 40% of all trips are within 2 miles of the home, and 50% of the working population commutes 5 miles or less to work. Yet more than 82% of trips 5 miles or less are made by personal motor vehicle.
- Those who decided to bike those 5 miles every day rather than driving an average car could reduce total household emissions by 6%.
- 60% of the pollution created by automobile emissions happens in the first few minutes of operation, before pollution control devices can work effectively. Since “cold starts” create high levels of emissions, shorter car trips are more polluting on a per-mile basis than longer trips.
- Recycling 670 aluminum cans, it is possible to produce 1 bicycle.
- 100 bicycles can be manufactured for the energy and materials it takes to build a medium-sized car.
- Parking lots are a problem for the environment, especially with the increasing number of motorized vehicles on the road. This means clearing more land for parking that was once home to plant and animal life. The asphalt, roadway tars and other chemicals poured to make parking lots also release pollutants into the air and create heat islands that contribute to global warming. The removal of trees and complementary vegetation eliminates vital air cleaners that help reduce the quantity of carbon dioxide in the air. Bicycle parking requires little space, which means that bikes help minimize the heat island effect and also preserve habitats.
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