Living Car Free - Wasting energy in an energy challenged world

Thought you guys would enjoy this article: http://www.velonews.com/article/78930/circles-wasting-energy-in-an-energy-challenged-world

Thought you guys would enjoy this article: http://www.velonews.com/article/78930/circles-wasting-energy-in-an-energy-challenged-world

Years ago a racing friend went car free to add miles to her training. As I recall she didn't think it helped because the commuting and errand running didn't add much to her total weekly mileage. I'm glad to see the article in velo news admitting that you can use a bike for transportation.

It depends on your philosophy: It is possible that any energy not expended in getting a branch of the human tree permanently off of earth is wasted. But probably a waste even for that purpose.

Transporting myself with the bike has been an amazing experience. I guess I like sticking it to the man. I’m not pumping emissions into the atmosphere, other than the occasional fart now and then. I’m not feeding the demand frenzy for gasoline, and the politics that go with it. I even get the bonus of knowing that I don’t have to pay over four bucks for gas. And of course there are the fitness dividends. I’m going to invest in a trailer for the bike soon so I can haul groceries, which will be no small feat since my rural home is 22 miles from Durango. I would have never thought that I’d be one of those guys, but here I am, and I’m loving it.

Roadies 0 Utility Cyclists 1

Years ago a racing friend went car free to add miles to her training. As I recall she didn't think it helped because the commuting and errand running didn't add much to her total weekly mileage. I'm glad to see the article in velo news admitting that you can use a bike for transportation.

I get 100 miles a week minimum from commuting and errands... all my recreational and/or training rides are on top of that. Guess it depends where you live, work, and shop. ;)

Thought you guys would enjoy this article: http://www.velonews.com/article/78930/circles-wasting-energy-in-an-energy-challenged-world

Thank you for posting this! While I will never underestimate the value of recreation, I find it ludicrous that road cyclists will drive to a bike ride. 90% of my riding is for transportation and utility but that doesn't mean I can't go fast, try hard, and enjoy myself while I'm doing it.

Thank you for posting this! While I will never underestimate the value of recreation, I find it ludicrous that road cyclists will drive to a bike ride. 90% of my riding is for transportation and utility but that doesn't mean I can't go fast, try hard, and enjoy myself while I'm doing it.

Depends where the ride start is... a lot of mine start 30 or more miles away... being carfree REALLY puts a limit on how many of these I can make. :(

The last group ride I went on I had to be up at 3 am and out the door within minutes to catch the light rail and then had a 10 mile ride to the ride start... I ended up doing 120 miles that day when the other riders I rode with did 80.

Depends where the ride start is... a lot of mine start 30 or more miles away... being carfree REALLY puts a limit on how many of these I can make. :(

The last group ride I went on I had to be up at 3 am and out the door within minutes to catch the light rail and then had a 10 mile ride to the ride start... I ended up doing 120 miles that day when the other riders I rode with did 80.Why not just carpool with another rider? Unless you want to or don't mind getting the extra miles in?

I organize rides and they all start at central locations where riders bicyle to the start of the ride and then back home. Still, many people car-tote their bike to the start.

Last week, I met a friend to go for a casual bike-path ride. She picked the spot. She car-toted her bike 60 miles round-trip and bicycled 26 miles!

I bicycled 30 miles to meet her at the location, rode the 26 miles of path with her, and bicycled 30 miles back to my house = 86 miles total for a friendly jaunt.

I save at least 3 gallons of gas a week by using my bike. that is almost 15 dollars a week and how much CO2. Oil should be saved for more important stuff like oil based products, medicines, airplanes. Instead of gridlock. thanks for posting.

Often, roadies will say that commuting and errand miles are "junk miles" because they don't involve the structure of hills, intervals, warmups and cooldowns that are typical of most "training rides."

I ride about 6000 miles a year. Probably about 5000 of that is going back and forth to work. Another few hundred might be errands around town.

All I can say is that as time goes by, I get passed less and less.