What Does 900mpg Mean?
An average person on a bicycle can travel 900 miles on the amount of energy (calories) contained in a gallon of gas.
Here's the Math - A gallon of gasoline contains about 34,000 calories - which can fuel a car for 20-40 miles, depending on your MPG - not bad.
A bicyclist burns about 600 calories per hour when riding at 16 miles per hour - that's a pretty casual pace. At 600 calories per hour, that bicyclist could ride for 56 hours on those 34,000 calories - and at that speed, would cover about 900 miles. Thus, 900 miles per gallon.
Bottom line - A bicyclist can travel approximately 36 times farther than the driver of a car for the same energy input - partly because the energy is being used more efficiently (combustion engines are very wasteful compared to muscles), and partly because, on a bike you're not lugging around an extra 2,500 pounds of steel and rubber (and toxic chemicals).
Of course a cyclist gets their calories from food, not gallons of gas. We are just comparing the amount of miles one can travel on the same amount of energy. After all energy, in whatever form, is what we are trying to conserve. For a more direct comparison using the exact same fuel for the car and the cyclist, you could consider a gallon of vegetable oil which could be consumed by the rider, or burned in a bio-diesel car. The results are about the same!
Who Runs This Site?
900mpg is not a company or even an organization. This site was started and is operated by a bike commuter who lives in Seattle. That's about all there is to tell. It's here to offer tips and information - all in one place - for people who are commuting by bike or thinking about giving it a try.
As an important side note, I should mention that the products, books, websites, etc. that I suggest on this site are just my personal suggestions, based on my personal experiences and discussion with other cyclists. I've added links to some Amazon products because it's easy for readers to see the specific products I've listed, read other people's reviews and purchase if they like. This site is not a money-maker... just a big pile of one guy's suggestions.
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