
How soon does a bike pay back its initial carbon footprint? - jseliger
http://www.slate.com/id/2300676/
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gburt
Don't cars also cost energy to produce? ...likely substantially more than a
bicycle too?

And even then, I would imagine, if you're changing your mode of
transportation, you're selling your car, and thus preventing someone else from
buying a new one? i.e., reducing the number of new cars sold.

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kscaldef
Not many people get rid of their car entirely when they start riding a bike.

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jrockway
Is this really a problem people have? "I would bike to work, and I'm not
afraid of traffic or being rained on or getting sweaty, but I'm worried that
it's bad for my carbon footprint." Yeah, right.

I'm embarrassed that I clicked the link.

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nasmorn
Biking to work is so much more than saving a bit of carbon emissions. It
provides physical exertion (which is usually lacking in our society) at a
minimal time commitment. I am sure this is hard to quantify in carbon
emissions but since a ton of carbon is quite cheap on the exchange and the
medical systems quite expensive I guess it is a net win.

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Locke1689
It would probably be more energy efficient to ride an electric powered
bicycle.

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zacharycohn
There's a huge flaw in this article. You start off in the black, because I'm
sure a car takes a lot more to produce than a bike.

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georgemcbay
I think the article was assuming you're already someone who owns a car and
will continue to own that car, not that you own neither and are buying one or
the other.

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samstave
Good to know. I have paid off my bikes carbon debt then, about 4 times.

I was biking a lot in general - then was biking to work each day and put 12
miles per day on it.

Now though, I work from home, so I have not been using the bike at all :(

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mathgladiator
_you'd have to be eating an all-beef diet to offset the environmental benefits
of walking or bicycling._

well that's just swell, my paleo diet is bad for the environment.

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Andys
Only because of modern farming processes.

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seabee
Without modern farming processes, only the upper class could even think about
an all-beef diet.

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jseliger
BTW—if you're thinking about riding more often, get a noseless saddle:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/before-y...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/before-
you-ride-that-bike-know-the-sexual-risks/241163/) .

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burgerbrain
...I have never had any of those symptoms in my decades of riding, nor have I
ever even heard of them. Despite the authors protest, this sounds _exactly_
like just another health scare.

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pygy_
Well, you're lucky, then. Regarding hearsay, perineal paresthesia is not
something you brag about, usually.

Pudendal nerve compressions are real and non anecdotic (but probably not
widespread either, I don't know the numbers). I wouldn't worry about it before
being symptomatic, if it ever becomes the case.

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Hyena
Arguably, if we're going so far as to factor in food, we should factor in
health benefits. If bicycling reduces your demand for medical care, it also
reduces the portion of your carbon footprint taken up by treatment. Hospitals
and medical equipment don't grow on trees.

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georgieporgie
Easy solution: buy a used bike. :-)

Incidentally, as I get older and travel more, I find myself increasingly
interested in the classic, low-slung, steel commuter bike. The sort you see
Japanese cops, businessmen, and moms riding. Dirt simple, standardized, and
indefinite in lifespan.

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jseliger
To be fair, this is a example of the "standing-in-a-theater" problem from
economics: if you buy a used bike, you're doing something "better" for the
environment, because the good is already made; if everyone does it, then there
are very few used bikes.

Plus, there's a decent chance that you're just subsidizing someone's new bike
(incidentally, this is how I pay for new Macs: I sell the old one on
Craigslist for a third to half of its original price after 3 – 4 years and use
the proceeds to buy a new one. Works pretty well).

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georgieporgie
I only partially agree. There are a _tremendous_ number of unwanted, used
bikes in the world. They're stashed away in garages and barns, they're piled
up in thrift stores and junk yards, and they're crushed and recycled en-masse.

If there were very few (unwanted) used bikes due to redistribution, that would
be a wonderful thing, for multiple reasons.

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mentat
Need a freecycle like website for this. I have at least 1 that I would be
interested in parting with.

