Originally Posted by tjspiel

Well, you don't quit burning calories just because you drive. Sitting burns about 75 calories per hour. Reading about 100. Driving is probably somewhere in between. Depends on your muscle mass too.

There's a pretty good article that discusses energy consumption of cars vs bikes. Considering where most of us get our food and current agricultural practices, cyclists get the equivalent of 70 to 130 mpg.

Lard has about 2000 calories per dollar. You could ride all day for a buck or two. Let's see a car do that.

Of course, many (most?) Americans consume far more calories than they need so the fuel cost of cycling is essentially zero for things like going to work unless it's a long distance. Imagine a car that had a gas tank that constantly expanded. That's us. Yikes...