[Leica] Forget Prius, buy a bike

[photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Philip Forrest)]

Exactly!
Get a bike, get healthy, save money, be MORE mobile and have access to more 
places than with an automobile.  
I started commuting to work last may.  When school started in late august, I 
began riding there as well.  I've only paid a total of $8 towards public 
transportation since May.  Had I not been riding, I'd have spent $6 or $8 
per-day (the expense depends upon which campus I'm attending on a particular 
day.)  $28 per-week.  School has been in session for 13 weeks now, so I've 
saved $364.  I also lost 28lbs in weight.  I get around town, to work, to 
class, and home an average of 60% faster than taking public transportation 
and easily half as much faster than privately owned vehicles.  I think the 
drivers of this city (Philadelphia) are very jealous of the cyclists getting 
around at normal speed while they are stuck in gridlock.  Perhaps that's why 
so many drivers are so incredibly rude and very offensive towards cyclists.
Riding a bike will burn just a tad more fuel than you were previously going 
to 
eat, but it won't be burning the remnants of dead dinosaurs or peat bogs.  
The world is so much better seen on a bike than in a car.  It affords many 
more photo opportunities as well.  


PhilFo


On Friday 16 November 2007 17:16, Didier Ludwig wrote:
> Hybrid car concepts: We need a new Einstein to solve this problem.
>
> The hybrid electro/fuel cars are only a small technological step. Using
> electricity to move a vehicle with the weight of a ton or two, is,
> thermodynamically seen, as stupid as burning petrol for the same purpose.
>
> If the electric power that charged the car battery is produced by a
> coal-burning power plant (which is often the case in Europe), the
> ecological balance is hardly better than with a fuel-only driven engine.
> Burning coal to produce electric power, storing the power in a battery, and
> then using it to drive a heavy vehicle means a loss of about 97-99% of the
> original energy the coal had into (0% would be the Perpetuum Mobile, but
> scientists are already delighted with 75% loss of energy only).
>
> The car industry's aim to produce hybrid cars is only partially
> ecology-driven. It's more the petrol-dependence with raising oil prices and
> decreasing oil sources that keeps them dancing. Burning biologically
> produced marsh gas isn't much better.
>
> But, if there's no new Einstein, we can meanwhile use bicycles, and public
> transports (which, unfortunately, are not everywhere so well developped and
> punctual like in my country).
>
> I've bought quite some cars, motorcycles and bycicles in my life, but I was
> never as excited as last monday when I ordered my new mountainbike, a full
> suspended Commen?al Meta 4.1, model 2007 (now going with 30% deduction).
> The most gorgeous bike I ever had. Fast, agile, light. French engineering
> with japanese parts, assembled in Andorra. Looks like this:
> http://www.yodabikes.fr/tests/meta4.1.jpg
>
> Cheers
> Didier
>
> >The Prius Hybrid system works well in a certain range of speeds and usage.
> > Gentle acceleration, speeds of 120km/hr or less and gentle cornering. The
> > idiot tv screen showing where your power is going can thankfully be
> > turned off. It seems to be very reliable and problem free; a Toyota
> > virtue. The problem is (if you like driving the car) that it has no
> > overall ecological advantage, and monetarily you are not going to come
> > out ahead unless you drive a lot more than average.
>
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