🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 12:22:28 GMT, "George Conklin"
<nilknoc@earthlink.net> wrote:

>"Brian Sandle" <bsandle@ablatespam.snap.net.nz> wrote in message
>news:1088902285.307312@kyle.snap.net.nz...
>> In nz.reg.canterbury.general George Conklin <nilknoc@earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> When you replied to me last year you pointed out how people love their
>> cars. They did love their horses, too.
>
>   Great.  Then we can go back to horses.
>
>> With horses you would still have parking problems, and traffic jams if you
>> only had the same number of people per drawn carriage as cars often have.
>>
>> Do many people carry bikes on public transport or in their cars in your
>> area?
>
>    There are carriers on the front of each bus. About once or twice a year
>I see a bicycle on one of the racks.  I am sure the fuel used to haul around
>the extra weight adds to the pollution of the diesel engines in the buses.

A suburban bus gets about 7 mpg empty, about 3 mpg in most
circumstances when full (70 passengers incl. standing).  The higher
consumption partly reflects the weight but mostly reflects the more
frequent stopping.  Consumption can be as high as 1 mpg for full short
run frequent stopping shuttle buses.  Empty the bus weighs 8 tons,
full 12 tons so most of the fuel is used moving bus, not payload.
These are round figures for 1970s vintage Mercedes buses but I think
modern buses wouldn't be much different.  A bicycle weighs a lot less
than a person, I think it wouldn't make much difference to the fuel.

More significant I think in this bycycle/horse/car debate is traffic
volume and safety, and for many people how sweaty they are when they
arrive at work and how wet they get on the way.  I own a bicycle but
only use it recreationally on safe cycle tracks in Auckland.  I used
to ride it to work but decided it wasn't worth the risk, in addition
to working further from home than I used to.  I think in the modern
urban context electric trains are the best solution by far, and buses
second.  I rarely use either, they are too infrequent and don't go
where I want to go.  The city fathers are working on this one, helped
by asian immigrants who are happy living in high density housing and
more used to public transport.

John