Originally Posted by
mr_bill
Sigh.
Peak estimates of the carbon footprint of manufacture and transportation to point of sale for a bicycle is 150 Kg CO2 equivalent.
That's about 60 gallons of gasoline. Or less than three full tanks in an Escalade. (P.S. The Escalade didn't magically appear without a carbon footprint either. I don't know if you've checked out the weight in steel of an Escalade, but it's a wee bit heavier than a bicycle.)
Are you riding SINGLE USE bicycles? Then worry about the carbon footprint of your bicycle manufacturing. Otherwise, it's noise.
(Next, you'll be complaining about your increased methane output if you ride a bike instead of drive.)
-mr. bill
I don't think the question is whether the production and operation of a bicycle has a smaller carbon footprint than a car, the real question is whether the bicycle's production and subsequent use actually causes a reduction in the dirty car use/production big enough to offset the bike's footprint. I'm not sure how the math on that might work.
We definitely agree bike production is not a huge contributor to global warming, but I really don't know that encouraging more bicycle use will actually reduce emissions overall. My guess is probably, but not by a huge amount.