Tag: Bicycle
A Future Without Cars, and It’s Amazing
As coronavirus lockdowns crept across the globe this winter and spring, an unusual sound fell over the world’s metropolises: the hush of streets that were suddenly, blessedly free of cars. City dwellers reported hearing bird song, wind and the rustling of leaves. (Along with, in New York City, the intermittent screams of sirens.)
You could smell the absence of cars, too. From New York to Los Angeles to New Delhi, air pollution plummeted, and the soupy, exhaust-choked haze over the world’s dirtiest cities lifted to reveal brilliant blue skies.
Cars took a break from killing people, too. About 10 pedestrians die on New York City’s streets in an ordinary month. Under lockdown, the city went a record two months without a single pedestrian fatality. In California, vehicle collisions plummeted 50 percent, reducing accidents resulting in injuries or death by about 6,000 per month.
As the roads became freer of cars, they grew full of possibility. Rollerblading and skateboarding have come back into fashion. Sales of bicycles and electric bikes have skyrocketed.
— source nytimes.com | Farhad Manjoo | Jul 9, 2020
Time to ride the future
E-bikes can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions
e-bike carbon reduction capability is the maximum carbon reduction we could see if people replaced as much of their car travel as they are able with e-bikes. In England this could be up to 30 million tonnes per year, equivalent to half of current CO2 emissions from cars. On average, each person using an e-bike to replace all the car journeys they are able to could save 0.7 tonnes CO2 pa. This would mark a very radical change in travel behaviour.
| Lifecycle CO2 emissions g/km | |
|---|---|
| e-bike | 22 |
| Battery electric car – Nissan Leaf | 104 |
| Hybrid car – Toyota Prius | 168 |
| Petrol car – EU average | 258 |
| References 7–9 | |
— source Oxford University Centre for the Environmen | 18 May, 2020
European cycling industry employs 655,000 people
The study, titled “Jobs and job creation in the European cycling sector”, about 655,000 people are employed in the cycling industry including in bicycle production, tourism, and retail, and infrastructure as compared to 615,000 in mining and quarrying. The study was commissioned by European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), an umbrella federation of organisations which promote cycling as healthy means of transportation and recreation in Europe. The study notes that in comparison Europe’s steel industry employs only 350,000 people, according to the data given by the European Steel Association.
2014