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The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike (www.scientificamerican.com)
submitted 2 months ago by hanrahan@slrpnk.net to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Non paywalled version

https://archive.md/wZytx

Turns out a car is particularly inefficient.. Who knew /s

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[-] CEbbinghaus@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Damn, I always knew that humans are some of the most efficient beings on earth. Given the 100-200 watts we use a day powers one of the most evolved brains and one of the most capable bodies.

So it doesn't surprise me that us, powering a more efficient vehicle (such as a bike) would result in some of the highest efficiency movement anywhere on earth

[-] tate@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 months ago

one of the most revoked brains

?

[-] crank0271@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

If you turn on the internet for a bit it makes sense.

[-] tate@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago

I guarantee that's not how it works.

[-] naught101@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Maybe you're using the internet wrong?

[-] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Yeah, but what about a bird on a bike?

[-] the_q@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago

Bike Bird! Coming to Tubi this Fall!

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Gull or pigeon?

[-] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

European swallow

[-] LegoBrickOnFire@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

quote of the day: "Bikes allow us terrestrial folk to be more like fish."

[-] naught101@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I'm a big fan of bikes, I always ride locally. But I suspect this is assuming a paved road, and a well maintained bike, right? In wonder how that changes when you account for maintenance costs? Alternatively, what would mountain biking look like on this chart?

[-] Hawke@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I doubt maintenance costs make much difference to the number of calories burned, although it might depend on how physical the job is that pays for maintenance.

Probably negligible though.

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Why have they done that with the largely meaningless background of the graph

[-] PeachMan@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

They explain the meaning of the colors if you scroll down a bit....

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm referring to the distracting and pointless animation of the background, not the meaning of the colours (which are used to shade largely meaningless areas of the graph)

[-] Shanedino@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

False headline are not fun, a Pelican using the ground effect had to be way not efficient.

[-] certified_expert@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I love how the plot is pretty much normalized to pigeons

this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
50 points (98.1% liked)

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