Published Tuesday, May 16, 2006 in the East Valley Tribune as “Gas tax hike would help save planet.” (shortened there, below is the full version)
Would you like to get 900 miles per gallon and have zero emissions going to work? When I take the kids to some activities, our mileage drops to 450 miles per gallon, but that’s still pretty good.
There’s a downside; we’re slow. I travel about 15 mph alone, declining to 12 mph with the kids. Sometimes I work up a sweat, but it keeps us in good shape.
If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m talking about bicycling—or in the case of the kids our tandem with a tandem child attachment, yielding four-seats on three wheels. The calculations are based on the calories expended by our bodies relative to the calories in a gallon of gasoline.
Ultimately, everyone uses a cost-benefit analysis in making living and travel choices. Recently while heading to church in our automobile (we don’t always bike), I asked the kids to count the number of vehicles we passed that had at least three people in them and to compare that with the number of vehicles with one person in them. They came up with a ratio of about one car with multiple passengers to every 20 with just a driver. Read the rest of this entry »