Paradoxically there are actually some indications that the calories burned while bicycling, especially from a meat-heavy diet, lead to more carbon emissions per mile than powering an electric car with anything other than coal.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1108357_electric-cars-vs-bicycles-which-has-a-higher-carbon-footprint
There are still a wide variety of societal benefits to more bicycling but it’s not quite accurate say “zero” impact I think.
The link to the raw data is dead, and it contradicts some other research, and also is an article on something that is called"green car reports". Those are indications of maybe not the most unbiased data
"At the extremes, a vegan cyclist will produce only 5% of the emissions a conventional pickup truck will produce, while a meat-loving cyclist will actually produce 42% more GHGs than the most efficient EV. "
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2022/ph240/schutt2/
I’m sure the exact numbers are a little open to interpretation but I’ve seen it mentioned more than once in different places.
That said, I absolutely try to commute on my ebike as much as possible
I saw this page some long time ago. I also find it hard to believe actually. One big thing to note is that even though this is on a Stanford domain, it is probably written by a student “Submitted as coursework for PH240”. It is also not peer reviewed, so experts haven’t challenged the methodology or results.
One criticism which comes to my mind is that the manufacturing of an electric or ICE car usually emits several tons of CO2e, while the bicycle manufacturing emits around 100 kg as cited on the website. Usually the car emissions are then calculated by assuming that the car will be used for some 100 thousand kms, thus the per km CO2 emissions are relatively low. This might not be the case for someone using their car only in cities or not owning a car but using train and bus for long distances.
That completely ignores the fact that a human being needs at least half an hour to one hour of light exvercise / physical movement daily to stay healthy at all. If you do not cycle or run, you’d need to go to a gym / fitness studio.
Also, if you care at all about CO2 emissions, eating vegan or vegetarian food is the way.
Also, driving 3 or 4 kilometers to a supermarket to get a veggie pizza needs way more energy and CO2 for the drive, thsn for the food itself. You can compute that from the fuel consumption of a car - about 180 Grams of CO2 per person per kilometer, so 1.4 kilograms for 4 kilometers each way.
Also, often the danger of cycling is stressed. That’s rubbish because of the health effect of physical exercise - the most dangerous aspect of modern life is lack of exercise, and if you use a bike instead a car you are wayyy less likely to die of cardiovascular problems, which are the real killer, not accidents.
That’s why ebikes are considered better than analog bikes by some metrics. Outside of electrified trains, there’s pretty much nothing as efficient as an ebike for distance /calories burned + electricity usage (minimal, compared to EVs)
Paradoxically there are actually some indications that the calories burned while bicycling, especially from a meat-heavy diet, lead to more carbon emissions per mile than powering an electric car with anything other than coal. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1108357_electric-cars-vs-bicycles-which-has-a-higher-carbon-footprint There are still a wide variety of societal benefits to more bicycling but it’s not quite accurate say “zero” impact I think.
The link to the raw data is dead, and it contradicts some other research, and also is an article on something that is called"green car reports". Those are indications of maybe not the most unbiased data
"At the extremes, a vegan cyclist will produce only 5% of the emissions a conventional pickup truck will produce, while a meat-loving cyclist will actually produce 42% more GHGs than the most efficient EV. " http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2022/ph240/schutt2/
I’m sure the exact numbers are a little open to interpretation but I’ve seen it mentioned more than once in different places. That said, I absolutely try to commute on my ebike as much as possible
I saw this page some long time ago. I also find it hard to believe actually. One big thing to note is that even though this is on a Stanford domain, it is probably written by a student “Submitted as coursework for PH240”. It is also not peer reviewed, so experts haven’t challenged the methodology or results. One criticism which comes to my mind is that the manufacturing of an electric or ICE car usually emits several tons of CO2e, while the bicycle manufacturing emits around 100 kg as cited on the website. Usually the car emissions are then calculated by assuming that the car will be used for some 100 thousand kms, thus the per km CO2 emissions are relatively low. This might not be the case for someone using their car only in cities or not owning a car but using train and bus for long distances.
We’ve made fun of that weird propaganda piece when it came out though.
That completely ignores the fact that a human being needs at least half an hour to one hour of light exvercise / physical movement daily to stay healthy at all. If you do not cycle or run, you’d need to go to a gym / fitness studio.
Also, if you care at all about CO2 emissions, eating vegan or vegetarian food is the way.
Also, driving 3 or 4 kilometers to a supermarket to get a veggie pizza needs way more energy and CO2 for the drive, thsn for the food itself. You can compute that from the fuel consumption of a car - about 180 Grams of CO2 per person per kilometer, so 1.4 kilograms for 4 kilometers each way.
Also, often the danger of cycling is stressed. That’s rubbish because of the health effect of physical exercise - the most dangerous aspect of modern life is lack of exercise, and if you use a bike instead a car you are wayyy less likely to die of cardiovascular problems, which are the real killer, not accidents.
It’s like these people are eating minimum amount of food in the first place.
That’s why ebikes are considered better than analog bikes by some metrics. Outside of electrified trains, there’s pretty much nothing as efficient as an ebike for distance /calories burned + electricity usage (minimal, compared to EVs)
https://youtu.be/HW5b8_KBtT8
I think the takeaway here should be that meat heavy diets are worse for the environment than you might realize.
The takeaway should not be that cars are only barely worse than bikes.