Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

[marmar]

Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities
Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorized transport as quickly as possible

By CHRISTIAN BRAND
APRIL 10, 2021 11:29AM




(Salon) Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the world's fossil fuel car fleet.

The emission savings from replacing all those internal combustion engines with zero-carbon alternatives will not feed in fast enough to make the necessary difference in the time we can spare: the next five years. Tackling the climate and air pollution crises requires curbing all motorized transport, particularly private cars, as quickly as possible. Focusing solely on electric vehicles is slowing down the race to zero emissions.

This is partly because electric cars aren't truly zero-carbon – mining the raw materials for their batteries, manufacturing them and generating the electricity they run on produces emissions.

....(snip)....

What a difference a trip makes

We observed around 4,000 people living in London, Antwerp, Barcelona, Vienna, Orebro, Rome and Zurich. Over a two-year period, our participants completed 10,000 travel diary entries which served as records of all the trips they made each day, whether going to work by train, taking the kids to school by car or riding the bus into town. For each trip, we calculated the carbon footprint.

Strikingly, people who cycled on a daily basis had 84% lower carbon emissions from all their daily travel than those who didn't. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/10/cycling-is-ten-times-more-important-than-electric-cars-for-reaching-net-zero-cities_partner/

[Shermann]

1. I'd love to ride my bike to work

It's only four miles, but unfortunately I live in the upstate SC suburbs where the roads are unbelievably hostile towards bicyclists and bike racks aren't even a thing.

[bikeboy]

2. bicycles rule!

I bought an electric cargo bike 5 months ago. In that time frame I've put 2000 miles on it and I still have half a tank gas in my van as it sits there doin not much. The bike is just too much fun to ride! I would recommend one to anyone even remotely thinking about getting one.