In a year, a typical North American car will add
close to 5 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere
The average number of barrels of oil consumed daily
in the US is 17 million
Driving consumes 43% of those barrels of oil
Over the last 20 years the average length of a
commute has increased 40%, miles driven has increased over 50% and time
spent in traffic has increased 225%
According to the Federal Department of Energy more
than 50% of the working population in the US lives within 5 miles of
the place they work
Although more than 60% of all trips are 5 miles or
less fewer than 1% are actually made by bicycle
One fourth of all trips people make are one mile or
less, yet three fourths of these short trips are made by car
Cycling can help the environment
A four mile round trip by bicycle prevents the
production of 15 lbs of air pollution
A seven mile commute by bicycle instead of car each
day saves almost 9 pounds of hydrocarbons, more than 66 pounds of
carbon monoxide, 4.4 pounds of oxides of nitrogen and 1319 pounds of
carbon dioxide emissions annually
If just one out of every 10 commuters who now drive
to work switched to bicycling, the savings would amount to 2 billion
gallons per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 25.4 million
tons
8 bicycles can be parked in the space required for
just one car