kim_harding ✅Jun 28, 2025
"A cyclist can go 3 or 4 times faster than a pedestrian, but uses 5 times less energy. The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match metabolic energy to impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips efficiency of not only all machines, but all other animals as well."
—Ivan Illich
Show threadSueDiOhJun 29, 2025
@kim_harding Factor in distance and let's see how this comes out. 😉
Show threadzipJun 29, 2025
@SueDiOh that's the "per passenger kilometre" part
Show threadSueDiOh
@zip Got it. But if I've got to get groceries, and it's always more than 1 bag, and my nearest store is about 7 miles away, the bike is not more efficient. These kinds of comparisons really only work for cities, is all I'm saying.
Jun 29, 2025 at 1:22pmWeb
Show threadzipJun 29, 2025
@SueDiOh looking at the numbers on the graph I'd say you'd have to make 35 trips on the bike before you've used more energy than one car trip... but yes, these numbers don't account well for practicality considering that's an hour round trip on the bike
Show threadSueDiOhJun 29, 2025
@zip And it assumes ideal biking conditions.
I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm just here to remind people that you can make a statistic to support any argument.