Think about this.

I pulled this from the latest issue of Bicycling. I found this interesting...

Think about this: According to the Worldwatch Institute, it requires more than 100 times more energy and raw materials to build a car than a bicycle; 12 bikes can park in the space of one car; a street must be 12 lanes wide to accomodate 40,000 car commuters per hour, but only one lane wide to handle the same number of cyclists; and finally, says Bicycling Science, by Frank Rowland Whitt and David Gordon Wilson, converting calories into gasoline, a bicycle gets 3,000 miles to the gallon.

To bring the point closer to home: Only 9 percent of the oil the United States consumes comes from the Persian Gulf. Only half of this is used for transportation. If Americans cycled, rather than drove, just one day a week, we would completey eliminate our need for Middle East oil. On the health side, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 34 percent of Americans are overweight and an additional 31 percent are obese. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death, just behind smoking; more than 400,000 people die every year from poor diet and physical inactivity. Moderate cycling burns 500 calories an hour. Were U.S. citizens to simply bike to and from work for a year, fat would cease to be an American obsession. As for the wallet, average Americans spend one-fourth of their income on their cars; a bicycle that will last a lifetime costs maybe $500. Finally, in terms of air pollution, transportation accounts for 17 percent of U.S. greenhouse gasses. The most popular vehicle in America is the full-size, 14-mpg $20,000 Ford F150 pickup truck. It is also one of the dirtiest machines made, ranked by the EPA among the worst-polluting vehicles in the country. Every time you ride a bicycle, instead of driving, you reduce global warming.

The way it should be, the way it is Mark
Jenkins Bicycling June 2008 pg 84