Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities
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This may not be too terribly surprising to some, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that, while the move to electric cars has some benefit, it's still part of a wider problem that doesn't solve transportation problems in general, and isn't enough to tackle climate change.
When we compared the life cycle of each travel mode, taking into account the carbon generated by making the vehicle, fuelling it and disposing of it, we found that emissions from cycling can be more than 30 times lower for each trip than driving a fossil fuel car, and about ten times lower than driving an electric one.
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I got this data from the literature but can't seem to find the reference. This also takes into account everything from expected life cycle to C02 emitted by the user (which is why walking does not come out so well). It is based on European average energy costs.
eScooter <10 gr CO2eppkm
eBike 14.8 gr CO2eppkm
regular bike 21 gr CO2eppkm
pedestrian 56 gr CO2eppkm
electric vehicle 90 gr CO2eppkm
bus 101 gr CO2eppkm
gas powered vehicle 200-266 gr CO2eppkm -
I got this data from the literature but can't seem to find the reference. This also takes into account everything from expected life cycle to C02 emitted by the user (which is why walking does not come out so well). It is based on European average energy costs.
eScooter <10 gr CO2eppkm
eBike 14.8 gr CO2eppkm
regular bike 21 gr CO2eppkm
pedestrian 56 gr CO2eppkm
electric vehicle 90 gr CO2eppkm
bus 101 gr CO2eppkm
gas powered vehicle 200-266 gr CO2eppkm@RobHiggins The data you posted seemed familiar to me. It looks like it was reported here:
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/long-reads/cycling-environmental-impact
What I find interesting about European data of this sort is that as soon as you start comparing fossil fuel burning vehicles, they're likely going to miss fair comparisons for North America, where fair here would mean adding pickup trucks in to the list, which would create a new line item (or change the range of 'gas powered vehicle') that is up in the 370's. I think this is important data for us, as I don't believe we tax or treat pickup trucks appropriately on many factors, including their weight, how dangerous they are, and how much they pollute.
Source: https://www.co2everything.com/co2e-of/ford-f-150-awd-2020
