A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24923004

@davidho A helicopter or a jet fighter is more 'efficient' that a fruit fly or a bee? Really?
@bullivant @davidho
Energy per gram per km.
A jet is polluting, yes, but energy per gram per km it's not bad. Change that to energy per passenger per km and it'd be a different result.
@Gurre @bullivant @davidho Or energy per gram payload per km.
@ahltorp @Gurre @davidho OK. So they use a lot of fuel, but because they are so heavy their relative efficiency is high.