The averages are based on vehicles in the UK
Weight of average car: 1000 Kg
Energy to make 1 Kg of steel: 5 kgCO2
Energy to make 1 kg of plastic: 24 kgCo2
Energy to make and assemble: 3003 kgCO2
What Makes Up a Car?
50% steel
19% cast iron
8% non-ferrous metals
7% plastics
6% rubber
3% glass
2% fluids
5% other
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HcFMWKThpg]
More facts about cars from BicycleUniverse:
- The energy and resources needed to build one medium-sized car could produce 100 bicycles.
- 95% of a car’s energy goes towards moving the car itself, and only 5% to moving the passenger–vs. a 30-lb. bicycle: 83% of the energy goes towards transporting the rider, not the vehicle
- Traffic congestion wastes three billion gallons of gas a year.
- AAA of Minnesota puts the annual cost at $7,754 for 2003 for a vehicle driven 15,000 miles.
- Thirty percent of morning traffic is caused by parents dropping their kids off at school.
- Seven to twelve bicycles can park in one automobile parking space.
- Biking accounts for 0.2% of all road miles traveled, and 1% of all trips in the U.S.
- 41.4 million Americans rode a bike six times or more in 2002.
- The design capacity for a freeway lane is roughly about 1,500 persons/hour.
- Each fully loaded 18-wheeler does nearly as much damage to a roadway as 9,600 automobiles
- The number of trips taken on foot has dropped 42% in the last 20 years.
- On average, states spent just 55 cents per person of their federal transportation funds on pedestrian projects in the years studied, less than 1% of their total federal transportation dollars. Average spending on highways came to $72 per person.
– from treehugger.com