Why I cycle and why I try to get everybody to cycle

In the light of recent criticism for being "anti car" I have to confess to being a little bit guilty as charged, but the reason I'm so forthright about people getting out of dinosaur fuelled tin boxes, to use bicycles, trains and battery electric hybrid "train/trucks" instead. (They can run on a railway line, then on the road at the pull of a lever, to deliver goods to local sites.)

Here's the article.

And some pertinent figures quoted...

1. a car emits as much carbon in manufacture as it does being driven.,
2. a small car (Citroen C1)  emits 6 tonnes of CO2 during manufacture,
3. a mid-sized car (Ford Mondeo) emits 17 tonnes of CO2 during manufacture and
4. a large SUV (Land Rover Discovery) emits 35 tonnes of CO2 while being built.

This is the CO2 cost of all the steel, plastic, rubber, leather, etc. Then double this figure for driving it over its life. Then there's the tech waste issues (disposal of motor oil, old tyres, etc.)

Multiply this by 1 billion, the number of people expected to own cars by 2015-2020 and is this sustainable? No way. Replace the engine with an electric motor and coal becomes the source of use carbon, just as much CO2 for any given size of car, except it's mostly coal generated. Or we could go nuclear. No? Didn't think so.

So, the only way to buy time and stave off runaway greenhouse and reduce our carbon footprint effectively is to cycle, walk, catch trains for the longer trips and rethink how we move land freight.

Yes, I'm anti car. We should all be.