Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet

I was reading this morning about a fairly new book, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet. In it the author has a section on bicycles. I recently bought a nice "hybrid" bike to enjoy the trails in and around my home in Walnut Grove. A hybrid bike is a cross between a mountain bike and a cruiser, so its a bit more comfortable than a mountain bike.

Some things you may not have considered about bikes from this book that I found very interesting:

• The bicycle is the most efficient vehicle ever devised; a human on a bicycle is more efficient (in calories expended per pound and per mile) than a train, truck, airplane, boat, car, motorcycle or jet pack.

• Nearly half of all trips in the US are three miles or less; more than a quarter are less than a mile, distances easily covered by bike while saving you money and getting you fit.

• Bicycles outnumber automobiles almost two to one worldwide, and their production outpaces cars by three to one.

• Only 1 percent of Canadian commuters report bicycling as their usual mode of transportation.

• If Americans replaced just one in five of their average length car trips by bicycling, each driver would spare the atmosphere more than one ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Collectively, the effect would be comparable to taking 48 million vehicles off the road.

I will definitely buy this book and it has more information that just some data on bicycles. To see more bike facts, look here. There are also links to other fact sheets from this amazing book at the bottom of the first link I provided.