Wise Words: Numbers
You know what it's like - mention that you ride a bike among non-cyclists and you immediately find yourself fighting a corner. So it's always good to have some facts and figures to throw into the mix and give your argument a bit of oomph. Here's a handy list of thought provoking numbers gathered from a variety of cycling sources.
- The Dutch use bicycles for 27% of all their trips - in the USA this figure is less than 1%
- Substituting food for fuel, the bicycle will average around 3000 miles per gallon. This would mean that on his recent 18,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe, record breaker Mark Beaumont would have used the equivalent of a measly 6 gallons of fuel (that's about half a tank in your average family car)
- Amsterdam has over 300 miles of traffic free cycle paths - 37 percent of trips there are by bike - however, Gronigen is the most cycle-centric Dutch city, with a 5000 space bike park in its city centre. Oxford has 2,500 bike parking spaces
- Between 12 and 20 bikes can park in the space of one car.
- It takes 100 times less energy and raw materials to produce a bike as opposed to a car.
- Moderate cycling burns 500 calories per hour.
- China has traditionally been viewed as a cycling stronghold - however, as per capita income has quadrupled in the last 25 years, so car ownership has increased tenfold.
- Around 23 million bikes are sold every year in China, down from a peak of 40 million. Bike use has dropped correspondingly from 33 to 20 percent during the same period
- The 7 Stanes MTB Trails at Glentress welcome 250,000 MTB riders every year.
- Cycling in London increased by 67 percent between 2000 and 2005, thanks to the congestion charge and a range of pro-cycling initiatives. Over 650,000 Londoners now cycle on a daily basis.
- There are 10,000 miles of traffic-free National Cycle Network on the ground in the UK.
- According to recent surveys, 3.2 million Britons now regularly cycle - more people are choosing to cycle than take part in football, golf or athletics.
- Riding a bike is on average 5 times more efficient than walking.
- The calories in a banana will power you for 3 miles on a bike. The same energy would power a car from around 250 yards.
- On a bicycle you can travel 3 times faster than you can walk, for the same amount of energy.
- On a bicycle you weigh about six times more than your vehicle. In car your vehicle weighs around 20 times more than you do.
- On a bicycle you use up fewer watts of energy than a car consumes simply to power its lighting system for the same distance.
- On a bicycle you consume a fiftieth of the oxygen consumed by a motor vehicle, and create zero pollution.
- A moderate half-hour each-way commute will burn 11kg of fat in a year.
- Average daily cyclist has the fitness level of someone 10 years younger
- Around 33% of people in the UK own a bike but cycles account for only around 2% of journeys.
- The cost of buying a bicycle is approx 1% of the cost of buying a car.
- The annual cost of running a bicycle is just 250GBP compared to 6000GBP for a car.
- Cycling 4 miles daily reduces the risk of coronary heart diseases by 50%
- It is estimated that 800 million bicycles are in use throughout the world - twice the number of cars in existence.
Everyday Community Comments
Share this article with your favourite social networking sites.