The carbon footprint of commuting is largely based on that of your transport. I cycle to work. I'd be very surprised if that is anything close to 1g/km. Vs 100+g/km for many a Dino burner.
Sure there's many arguements to be made about flexible working, work from home, etc... but what this article is really saying, is our transport system is utterly fucked up (and about 25% of global emissions). Ban cars.
@quixoticgeek Ban cars for young, fit, healthy people. Elderly and disabled often rely on a car to go anywhere, or should they be housebound? Altitudes: Home: 148m. Town 64m. Distance 1.5 miles. Wheelchair: near impossible to self propel or push uphill. Difficult to control downhill. Electric wheelchair: Not to be used outside in wet conditions. Hospital appointments: Downhill into town and uphill to hospital, which is at elevation 204m. A car is essential!
@BogLoper what if the buses were better ?
What about a bakfiets?
What about a taxi ? Owning a car 365 days a year for the one day you need to take the cat the vet feels wasteful
@quixoticgeek The car is converted with a ramp and lowered floor to accommodate Julie's wheelchair. Specialist tie downs to secure the chair while driving. Taking the cat was a bonus.
@quixoticgeek A taxi would have cost about €10 each way and used the same amount of fuel.
@quixoticgeek a bakfiets would not be possible for me to use on the hills around here. Looks nice for a flat area.
@BogLoper electric assist for bikes levels out hills nicely.
@quixoticgeek If it were just me an electric assist bike, with three wheels and a trailer, would be ok but as we have the specialist vehicle anyway, I will use it
@quixoticgeek The wheelchair weighs about 15 stone - 95.25kg. The car is a converted Fiat Doblo. It is there to transport my wife to hospital, doctor, shopping, visiting relatives etc.
@BogLoper @quixoticgeek It's not really _news_ that cars let you risk other people's lives and poison the air they breathe for your own convenience.
@denisbloodnok I am aged with a degenerative spine disease. My wife is disabled, having lost a leg to a blood disease which makes her wheelchair dependant. Psychotic cultists like you need to think of those who are not able to use electric bikes etc and depend on a large vehicle. You make me sick with your one size fits all, living in a flat place where your preferred mode of transport is ideal. Try thinking of the elderly and disabled, or do you wish us dead? Fascist.
@BogLoper The astonishing thing about this kind of reply is how you can think we haven't thought of that. How could we improve life for people with limited mobility? Bus services that aren't a joke. A railway network that isn't half missing. Local shops. Employers that think it's unfeasible to be in the middle of nowhere with no public transport links. And, of course, we could make fewer of them by not letting drivers maim people every day.
@BogLoper We don't have those things _because_ people drive. (Now, in the world I want, would some people still need powered mobility aids? Yes. One-tonne mobility aids that will do not just 70mph but illegal speeds? No.)
"Wish us dead" is a bit thick coming from a driver. People like you kill people like me _every day_ - not "by accident", but by criminal behaviour and sometimes active malice.
@denisbloodnok Good luck starving in your cave and having to hunt animals to eat while shivering with fear as soon as darkness arrives in case something wants to eat you! I would say it was nice discussing things with you but as you called me a murderer and a homicidal maniac, I can't. Goodbye and good luck with your dream world. Hoping you don't starve, unlike myself who grows enough vegetables to feed us and some of our neighbours. Trog.
@denisbloodnok P.S. I have not even come close to killing anyone while driving and not had an accident that was my fault - ever. Neither do I drive at much more than 30mph, less in built up areas. Go back to your cave and starve troglodyte cultist. You started the insults. I'm finishing them. Muted_Idiot.
@BogLoper Yes, you have. Every time you drive you poison the air other people breathe.
@denisbloodnok Ever thought of why drivers speed? Every car has an onboard computer and most also have a GPS system built in. Why are they not linked to the speed limits to stop speeding? The answer is the authorities make too much money from fines.
My wife cannot get onto a bus because 1/ the drivers need to come out and drop a ramp, which they seldom do. 2/. The disabled area is full of baby buggies. 3/ They often don't arrive, leaving her to wait an hour for the next one. Cont:
@BogLoper Drivers speed, with lethal consequences, because they're essentially all criminals and the law is not enforced. If the aim was to make money from fines, the speed limit would be enforced as strictly as the drunk-driving limit.
The buses are bad _because people drive_. It's not news that the individual who chooses to play defect gets a benefit by externalising their costs on others. The surprising bit is that drivers expect those others to put up with it.
@BogLoper Also, while the whole "fines as cash source" thing is a bit of a cager conspiracy theory, if we can make money off dangerous criminals, _great_. I'm all for it.
@denisbloodnok 6/ The paths are often blocked by parked vehicles trees or roots growing under the path, raising the path.. 7/ The roads are filled with potholes that could cause the chair to jolt to a stop or tip right over. 8/ Wheelchair ramps are often far apart or in a state of disrepair. causing the chair to become grounded and immobile. 9/ The chair is not waterproof and unsuitable for going out in rain. These hazards, and many others, are the reason we have a car.
@BogLoper _Parked vehicles_? Potholes? You are now _yourself_ pointing out reasons why cars make life worse for people with limited mobility.
(Incidentally, what's someone in your position who can't afford a car to do? Tough luck, I guess, while you carry on making things harder to get to because "everybody drives").
@denisbloodnok If_ there_were_no_cars_there_would_be_no_potholes? That's because there would be no roads! The taxes from motor vehicles should pay for the roads! Before tarmacked roads there were cobbles. Not good for cars, or bikes, or wheelchairs. Pavements (sidewalks) were made from slabs of stone or non-existent. Utilities are allowed to dig up roads for maintainable or repair but never replace them properly. Rain gets underneath. Freezes. Lifts up the surface and - instant potholes.
@BogLoper Wrong. The roads were not built for cars. Macadamisation was largely the result of campaigning before the motor car by bodies like the Cyclists Touring Club.
@denisbloodnok We could not afford a car without a government scheme that helps pay for one. All the shops in this small village have closed years ago, before I moved here.
It is not easy to get a taxi if you are a wheelchair user. They often send a normal car when expressly asked for a wheelchair accessible one. Plus they charge extra!
Are you planning to stop oil and it's products? Where do you think tarmack for roads comes from?
@denisbloodnok This specialist car is ultra low emissions. It has done 6,000 miles in three years. It is used for shopping, hospital/doctor appointments and emergencies, like our cat having a poisoned wound. Don't blame us for the state of the world - blame the private planes, huge ships, millionaires, wars, compared to which our contribution is miniscule. Come back to me when you are sixty with a deteriorating body or disability.
@quixoticgeek https://www.bikeradar.com/features/long-reads/cycling-environmental-impact/ claims around 21g/km for biking. Still way better than cars obviously, but humans aren’t very efficient either.
@tfheen that assumes you eat extra for the cycling. If you were going to eat the food anyways then that doesn't figure. Same as we don't count the calories needed by a car driver in the emissions.
The manufacturing contribution is all that remains. I do such a high distance that it's reduced to almost a rounding error.
@quixoticgeek@social.v.st @tfheen@snabelen.no I reckon the carbon emissions of my additional cycling-induced washing (body and clothes) are substantial, but hard to calculate in a meaningful way.
@kim @tfheen depends on the riding. If you're doing 5km to work at 15kph on an omafiets you're not getting sweaty. The Dutch don't shower at work having cycled to the office.
Sure. When I do a 100k ride, I eat more, and I create a couple of items of extra laundry. But for utilitarian commuting, like the example in my original post. We're not eating extra, we're not sweating out our clothing, and not having an extra shower. Context.
Else I'll judge all motoring emissions on an f1 car.
@quixoticgeek that’s like saying that you were going to set fire to that petrol anyway, so it doesn’t count. The article talks about extra emissions, not what you’d emit by just being alive.
@tfheen except for utilitarian cycling people don't think "oh I'm cycling to work, I better have an extra slice of toast". Until you're riding 30+km it's just gonna be covered by your normal intake. So for a typical commute of less than 10k. Most people don't consume extra food. So the emissions from eating should not be included.
@quixoticgeek Just took our Ginger cat to the vet. His ear was infected from a cat bite/fight, just about to turn into an abscess.15 minutes each way in the car. Public transport (bus) 2 buses, one into town and another out to the vet. Estimated 1 hour each way plus 5 to 10 minute walks, if the buses run on time, or at all. Weather: 45mph wind gusts and medium to heavy rain showers. Ban cars? Not around here, thank you.