How many of you did one better & cycled to work today?

I did, 4.4 miles in the rain. No fuel used on the TDI.
Today is National Bike to School or Work Day.

i used to, but i have to be pretty at work. and smell nice, and we have no showeres here. otherwise, id totally bike. its only 13 miles each way.

I used to bike to work on regular basis from North Arlington to the Pentagon/Crystal City which is about 7 miles each way down the bike path. I used to use a shorter route through Fort Myer and Henderson Hall but I got run over by a postal truck and decided to minimize my time in traffic.

Now I just work out in the morning and walk my dog for two hours in the evening. No time to bike and besides it didn't save me any money since I consummed a lot more food and drink. You also put out a lot more CO2 then you think when you do a high resperation activity like biking.

lol, i dont think a bike ride puts out as much CO2 as a car under any circumstances

Depends on how far you drive and fast you ride. In my heyday I could keep a 20 MPH pace and at that rate you would be surprised how much air you cycle through your lungs. It's not ICE levels but it's not trivial either.

But it isn't CO2 from fossil sources. The recirculation of CO2 from recent sources is not a contributor to atmospheric CO2 increase. B100 puts out as much tailpipe CO2 as petrodiesel, but that is putting "back" atmospheric CO2, not "adding" to atmospheric CO2. Semantics maybe, but an important point.
I did. 10 miles each way, 35 minutes going in, 45 coming home due to altitude change. I have showers, indoor locked storage, a few changes of clothes in my cubicle desk/dresser brought in on those days when I drive. I really have no excuse to not pedal to work.

Even if I had a bicycle - 30 miles is too far. And I get off at midnight.

When the weather cooperates, I like to ride my motorcycle..

Current biofuels are not carbon neutral. It takes energy to move and process the materials. It also takes more energy to produce them then you get. For so-called green energy to work you have to repeal the laws of thermodynamics

Didn't know that, but it was raining like a mother here in Chicago today. I do ride bike to work when the weather is nice-did my part for Earth Day with a symbolic ride to and from that day. It can be really really scary here with the way people drive though.
I actually pulled up to a TDI driver last year on the bike and introduced myself since we were stuck at a red light.

I didn't bike in to work, but I did take a bus after walking to the stop at six in the bloody morning. My bike's rear rim is bent to the point of needing replacement, so no biking for me until I can pony up the cash for it.

I find it amusing, taking a bus to go drive a bus.

Not me. It's not feasible for me to ride my bike to work. Besides, I have done more than enough to reduce our carbon footprint i.e. CFL lighting in the whole house, recycle all paper products, metals, plastics, you name it. I am still in the process of replacing the VR6 with a TDI

Well, for the past two weeks, I've done nothing but walk and take public transportation. Gotta love European cities!

It cost me $7 to take a luxury motorcoach from Prague to Karlovy Vary, which is about a 100km ride... and the return trip was about $6. That's a bus with drinks served and a movie to watch. The bus leaves every 30 minutes during the peak and every hour later in the day -- ON TIME!

I also rode their subway. It costs about $1.40 for a 75 minute ticket, which is the most expensive one (for the time you get to use it). You can ride wherever you want on the subway, trams (street cars), or city buses with that pass. Even without knowing the language, it is pretty easy to figure out, and they run on time! The only problem is that they are putting in new tram lines in front of my hotel, so I have to walk two blocks to pick one up.

Nearly every car (and ALL trucks) here are diesel. About one in five cars has a trailer hitch. These are mostly Skodas, Fiats, VWs, Seats, Peugeots, and Renaults. Probably 90% of them have manual transmissions. That includes the 20 passenger Sprinter van that I took to Plzen today... and it was the 4 cylinder CDI that's "too small" for Americans! Not many large cars or SUVs.

jerryofva said:

Current biofuels are not carbon neutral. It takes energy to move and process the materials. It also takes more energy to produce them then you get. For so-called green energy to work you have to repeal the laws of thermodynamics

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Repeal the laws of thermo? Yeah, right.
Green energy is an improvement, not trying to escape entropy.

jerryofva said:

Current biofuels are not carbon neutral. It takes energy to move and process the materials. It also takes more energy to produce them then you get. For so-called green energy to work you have to repeal the laws of thermodynamics

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IF the only thing you got from the corn was biodiesel then yes it takes more energy than you get, BUT if you grow the corn, press it for the oil for bioD, ferment it for the ethanol/butanol, ferment the cornstalks (ag waste) for ethanol and then feed the corn remnants to the cows you are changing everything and making it cost and energy effective.

No need for a bike

My commute:

After 20+ years of flying 100K a year I think I've used up several lifetimes worth of carbon.

My wife could relate until November...

jerryofva said:

Current biofuels are not carbon neutral. It takes energy to move and process the materials. It also takes more energy to produce them then you get.

Click to expand...

Yes, and No, and No. but cheer up, .333 is good average for a baseball statistic.
You're right on only the first statement, They are not carbon neutral. Biodiesel fossil carbon lifecycle emissions are about 1/4 that of gasoline, predominantly due to the methanol commonly used for the transesterification. That's when the entire well-to-wheels (or fallow ground-to-wheels) process is considered. Still, my 33 mpg B5.5 has lower greenhouse gas emissions than a 130 mpg gasoline electric hybrid.
Now for your bad news: The energy balance for biodiesel is about 3:1, three times the energy from fuel use is available as was needed to grow, harvest, process, transesterify, and ship the fuel to the consumer. Gasoline is about 1.2:1, corn ethanol is up to about 1.2:1 now also due to improvements in processing.

Mike in Anchorage said:

Repeal the laws of thermo? Yeah, right.
Green energy is an improvement, not trying to escape entropy.

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Depends on what you mean by green energy. If you want to move to hydrogen power using wind driven electricity to make hydrogen then yes that is a better idea. The input, i.e., wind, is zero cost so it doesn't matter whether the energy output from hydrogen fuel is less then then energy input. Nobody is proposing this as a solution and the Obama administration just killed hydrogen fuel cell research. Using wind to produce base load powet as T. Boone Pickens proposes doesn't work. (See Spain, Denmark and Sweden) All he wants to do is sell natural gas.

Lug Nut: I want to see your calculations for virgin bio-diesel. There is no way that there is any energy gain. WVO can replace a whopping 70,000 bbls/day in diesel fuel so please don't use that source of bio in your calculations.

You still could have rode your Bike Peter I didn't even know it was national ride your bike to work week or I would've rode. It's only about 5 miles to work so easy ride for me even with a MTB and knobby tires.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

My commute:

After 20+ years of flying 100K a year I think I've used up several lifetimes worth of carbon.

Click to expand...

I'd love to ride to/from work when weather/time allow but 17 miles each way and no shower at work would't be pretty (or sweet smelling) - but, it might get me un-invited to all my meetings, maybe that wouldn't be so bad...

I used to ride quite a bit when I was younger and really enjoyed it - did 5 RAGBRAI's

Lets see, my commute is about 110 Km round trip, and the only way to get to where I need to go is to go on Alberta's deadliest highway. So no.

i was planning to ride my bike, and i even convinced one of my co-workers who's never biked to work to meet me and ride for part of her commute, but ...

Thursday night i was bicycling back from visiting a friend when a guy who'd been drinking ran into me from behind at ~40mph like i wasn't even there. i was in the ER till 4am Friday morning - i've got a bunch of injuries but in time i'm probably going to fully recover.

i was wearing a super high visibility long sleeve reflective jacket, a reflective courier bag, my bike had blinking lights on both the front and back, and my shoes are reflective. to a sober, even remotely attentive, driver i was visible from more than a 1000'. everyone that saw me (EMTs, police, ER docs and staff thought it unbelievable that i was not seen).

i'm actually incredibly lucky as this kind of accident could easily have resulted in my death or paralysis. so even if you're super careful when you ride, when others decide to drink and drive they're gambling with your life.

please do everything you can to bring an end to people drinking and getting behind the wheel. i hope we've made huge progress in this area by the time my 9yr old son, and all of our children, are bicycling on their own for transportation.

thanks.

A customer of mine recently got hit by a car while he was cycling. He's alright now, after a few broken bones and scrapes. Doesn't want to bike on public roads any more, though.

I was talking to my wife about how I used to bike down to the beach as a kid. We live in the same area as where I grew up, so she asked why I don't do it any more. I'd be scared to! There are no shoulders on the roads around here, and speed limits are mostly 40, so people are going more like 50-60 MPH. Lots of kids, drunk drivers, and just plain bad drivers on the roads. Frankly, I'd feel safer on a motorcycle, where at least I'm going the same speed as traffic.

Near my work, there's a great bike trail on the old railroad bed. I used to drive to a park & ride and bike from there to work, but that was still 29 miles of driving and just 3 miles of biking.

SUNRG - Sorry to hear about your injuries/accident. Best luck to a full and speedy recovery.

jerryofva said:

Lug Nut: I want to see your calculations for virgin bio-diesel. There is no way that there is any energy gain.

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As is the case with many renewable sources, the energy input (wind, tidal, geothermal, solar) is not counted. Certainly if the solar energy as watt*hours per square meter were considered, there would be entropy, but, then the solar energy put into the growth of plants matter for coal or oil would also have to be considered and further lower the yield rate of fossil fuels.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2005/07/what-is-biodiesels-energy-balance-34304

http://nbb.grassroots.com/08Releases/EnergyBalance/

older stuff:
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/renewable/renewablefuels/balance.htm

Jump to 2.5.1 of this pdf
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24089.pdf

Pimental and Patzek's flawed analysis:
http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/bioenerg...alance_v2a.pdf

McBrew said:

Frankly, I'd feel safer on a motorcycle, where at least I'm going the same speed as traffic.

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Pedal faster!
There are several rail to trail conversions near my home. Hate'em! You think vehicle drivers are bad? At least they have rules and some idea of what they're doing. Joggers, inline skaters, baby strollers, Sheesh! I'm safer on state highways.
I prefer to be treated as the road vehicle equal I legally am in all 50 states, and so I ride as such.
Keep right, left turns from the (right side of the) left lane, full stop at stop signs, hand signals for turns, obey one way streets, speed not to be over the limit (I admit I break this one in the car, too).

When I was a kid, I used to ride at night, or when delivering papers, at 0-dark-thirty in the morning, but no more.

If I can't get out and back while the sun is still up, I don't use the bike. And I have a co-worker who is the most dedicated bike to work guy I have ever known. But he stops half the year, due to lack of light, not the cold.

Oh, and last week I biked to work 2 days. One day I wimped out, and 2 days I was out of town.

Having just gotten back from overseas, I am catching up on the local news. Two bicyclists were hit by a car on the morning of "Bike to Work Day" in downtown Annapolis. One was taken to the local hospital, the other to Baltimore Shock Trauma.

There were a dozen car accidents today in the Boston area.