# Human on a bicycle is the most efficient traveler
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 22, 2022, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214 "2022-01-22T06:02:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/1 "2022-01-22T06:02:37Z")
I have heard this statement before but here is a chart from a 1973 Scientific American article. Kind of small, perhaps someone has a link to the actual article.
> **[Efficiency - Futility Closet](https://www.futilitycloset.com/2018/11/14/efficiency-2/)**
>
> In a 1973 Scientific American article on bicycle technology, Oxford engineering lecturer S.S. Wilson showed that a man on a bicycle “improves his efficiency rating to No. 1 among moving creatures and machines”: “When one compares the energy consumed...
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/2 "2022-01-22T06:20:01Z")
Google “V. A. Tucker The Energetic Cost of Moving About” and you’ll find an American Scientist 1975 article that is pretty good explaining why bicycles are so efficient. In fact, you’ll find several other studies along the same lines.
Spoiler: Freight trains and ships blow everything else away.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/3 "2022-01-22T07:23:53Z")
A human on a bicycle doesn’t look so hot when you consider that it takes about 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of food.
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> Spoiler: Freight trains and ships blow everything else away.
CSX says:
> CSX trains can move a ton of freight approximately 492 miles on a single gallon of fuel.
Translated to decent units, that’s 792 km on 126 MJ (assuming diesel) for 907 kg, or 175 J/km-kg. Translating again to the original units, that’s .042 cal/km-g. Quite a lot better than the 0.15 cal/km-g from the man on a bicycle, even without considering food production inefficiency. Also, 0.15 cal/km-g seems optimistic from the figures I’ve seen–one online calculator came up with 0.35 cal/km-g. At the 0.15 figure, a 75 kg man riding 100 km would only burn ~1125 kcal. That seems a little low to me.
In terms of unit analysis, all of these units are equivalent to a deceleration (i.e., m/s^2). That makes all of this much more intuitive–while a bicycle can certainly coast for quite a ways, a freight train or cargo ship can go for _miles_ when you cut power.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/4 "2022-01-22T07:28:44Z")
But I was under the impression that water transportation is more energy efficient than railroads.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/5 "2022-01-22T07:31:15Z")
It might be. I was only motivated to do the math for one of them. It’s still much better than the bicycle.
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/6 "2022-01-22T07:37:29Z")
On the other hand, I absolutely love bicycles, as I own seven of them. I tried to cull the herd and was down to five, but am now back at seven.
It really is like flying. Even more so back in my racing days.
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/7 "2022-01-22T11:47:08Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> CSX says:
>
> > CSX trains can move a ton of freight approximately 492 miles on a single gallon of fuel.
My trucking friends would always say that 200 of those will be in the wrong direction! Which is to say that a train will move freight 492 miles when you need to move it 92 miles from point A to point B. Real life examples from that time (mid 90s). Something going from Wichita to New Orleans would often go through Chicago and take three days.
Disclaimer these “trucking friends” were on the staff of the Owner Operator Independent Trucking Association, a trucker’s lobbying group.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/8 "2022-01-22T16:32:57Z")
I think the idea is for the efficiency of a single traveler. I wonder if he considered the Monarch butterfly?
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### Author:  [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/9 "2022-01-22T16:39:41Z")
Has anyone got a good (human) metabolic cost chart comparing biking, jogging, walking, sprinting, etc.? Swimming? Would be interesting.
> [@Dag\_Otto](#):
>
> On the other hand, I absolutely love bicycles, as I own seven of them.
Are any of them e-bikes?
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### Author:  [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/10 "2022-01-22T16:59:12Z")
Sure doesn’t seem efficient while I’m humping my sorry ass up a long hill.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/11 "2022-01-22T17:08:38Z")
> [@gnarator](#):
>
> Sure doesn’t seem efficient while I’m humping my sorry ass up a long hill. -
On the other hand, there’s no energy expenditure on the descent. (assuming it’s a straight, paved road and not a highly technical trail off-road)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/12 "2022-01-22T17:41:41Z")
Keep in mind that most of the biker’s Calorie consumption would be there even if he were taking a motorized vehicle. You need to either look only at the marginal Calorie consumption for biking, or add in the basal human figure for all other forms of transportation.
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### Author:  [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/13 "2022-01-22T17:59:41Z")
> [@Limmin](#):
>
> Are any of them e-bikes?
No, not yet. I’m not particularly a Luddite though none of my mountain bikes are full suspension. And I am fully onboard with gravel biking. I have ridden an e-bike, and I can certainly see the appeal (one would certainly overcome **gnarator’s** objection). Maybe one day, as I haven’t decided what my next bike is going to be.
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### Author:  [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/14 "2022-01-22T18:07:03Z")
I am guessing that none of these studies include the energy needed for the laying of a surface for the vehicle to travel on smoothly, nor the creation of the vehicle.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/15 "2022-01-22T18:12:23Z")
> [@PastTense](#):
>
> But I was under the impression that water transportation is more energy efficient than railroads.
Sure, but it’s a lot more costly putting in a canal if there doesn’t happen to be a river between the points you want to go.
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### Author:  [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/16 "2022-01-23T15:04:14Z")
I love bikes. Don’t use mine enough because I’m relatively far from my “office” and the roads in between here and there are IMO not safe for biking. But someday…
I’d love to try an e-bike. Starting with such an efficient system, the unadorned bicycle, you can add a small, low powered, lightweight upgrade to make hills a little easier etc. I wonder if regenerative braking systems exist for e-bikes. That could make it even better…
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/17 "2022-01-23T15:22:44Z")
Sure but try peddling with a 40’ shipping container on your back.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/18 "2022-01-23T15:25:16Z")
> [@msmith537](#):
>
> Sure but try peddling with a 40’ shipping container on your back. -
[https://www.kidscab.be/7944-large\_default/roland-heavy-duty-bike-trailer.jpg](https://www.kidscab.be/7944-large_default/roland-heavy-duty-bike-trailer.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/19 "2022-01-23T21:47:56Z")
Ah yes.
The correct number of bicycles to own is _N+1_, where _N_ is the number you already have.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-on-a-bicycle-is-the-most-efficient-traveler/958214/20 "2022-01-23T22:38:57Z")
True for skis as well.
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