Originally Posted by
degnaw
Lets do some math - if I were to drive six miles (round trip) at 26mpg, then I would've used 0.23 gallons of gasoline.
If I were to bike the distance, approximately...20 cars would slow to 15mph and accelerate hard back to ~45. Pulling numbers out of my ..., let's say the typical car cruises at 25mpg, takes 1/4 mile to accelerate, and accelerates at 15mpg. Thus, each car uses an additional ~0.006666 gallons of gas when they accelerate past me. Multiplied by 20... makes 0.13 gallons. Man, what a waste of time.
But that's assuming every car must slow at all, much less to 15mph, in order to pass. A lot of my commute is in a bike lane, with portions sharing a lane as well as taking the right lane of a multi-lane road. When on the multi-lane road, most drivers see me ahead of time and change lanes so they don't have to slow.
I think the difference is even more.