Well, Bicycling is OF COURSE the most efficient of getting around. There is no argument in that.
I will go further to say that driving your average car, alone, is more ecologically friendly than public transport. It also generates more money for the state and it’s programs, many of which will be dedicated to the betterment of it’s inhabitants (I’m clicking my heels here, I know)
But still, Bicycling is very efficient for short distances. Like, around the block. And unless you live around the block from a grocery store, pharmacy and gun store (We all have our priorities) then you’re also talking about a HUGE chunk of personal time occupied just getting around.
If I rode a bike to work, a mere 8 miles each way, then no one will argue that I am doing my part to save the planet. No one, that is, but my wife who will have to hear the alarm clock ringing at 5 am and watch me arrive at home at 8 o’clock, tired as hell. I couldn’t do anything else BUT work and go to work.
On the other hand, I used to work in New York City (a 1.25 hour commute on the train). Again, even with the increase in pay the amount of my own life that went un-lived made me so miserable that I would drive a sherman tank to work if it meant me getting home 20 minutes sooner. A public transportation commute in the NorthEast US rarely, if ever, saves you time.
On the issue of money, public transportation may not cost more than driving a 1957 Bel Air to work, out of tune and with the AC on - But it DOES cost more than driving my humble little Honda CRX.
On the last point, is the efficiency. A bus will plume out thick coulds of smelly exhausts for just about every seat on that bus to equal 20 more emissions controlled, modern vehicles on the road. I would be hard-pressed to find a difference in emissions. It’s when you take the weight of the vehicle and the number of occupants that the ratio gets really sticky.
Busses, even empty, weigh a ton. Trains are worse. Trains are almost as fuel efficient as airplanes, if it wasn’t for an airplane covering more ground.
-> Steven
As a personal pat on my own back, I ride to work on a 250cc motorcycle. I’m loving my commute more than ever, and it costs me $15 every 2 weeks to go to work. For about $20 every two weeks my girlfriend can ride a bike 18 miles each way to work.
I used to be a cycle-commuter. Started involuntarily when both cars were out of commission.
First commute: only 5 miles, but from the top of a BIG hill. Easy to get there, hard to get back. Took about an hour at first, dropped to (forgotten) once I got strong enough to climb that hill while still in the saddle.
Second commute: 12 miles, one short steep hill getting there. (We were down to one car.) About an hour each way -- I was AWAKE when I got there. Sponge bath on arrival.
Third commute: ~8 miles, flat (5 miles on a riverside bike trail). 26 minutes on the bike. 29 in the car. Showers at work. Two cars again, mine was only driven on weekends. (Good on the wallet.)
Now I'm ~9 miles from work but in a semi-rural setting with two routes in: a 60 MPH country highway with small shoulders, or a very narrow somewhat winding thoroughfare. I rode the first summer, but gave it up.
I think I like you already. ;-)
Busses are diesel. Diesels produces visible particulates but little else. Gasoline produces little visible particulates but lots of other bad stuff that’s invisible. In otherwords, buses are not as dirty polluters as your eyes are telling you and gasoline engines are not as clean as your eyes are telling you.
I would just feel sorry for the poor saps who have to sit next to the person who rode their bike to work.