Dhe Swiss love precision down to the last detail. You can see that not only in fine watches from traditional manufacturers. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office and the Office for Spatial Development have now looked at the public burden caused by traffic, and economics professor Reiner Eichenberger has taken a close look at the figures. It looks bad for public transport and bicycles. The fact that the former is notoriously nice is trivial. When diesel buses drive across the country empty in the afternoon because only those who are not allowed to or can no longer drive a car, and when the train pretends that it only uses electricity from renewable energies, these are well-known tricks that are not more caught.
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But now the bike. When I do my 100-kilometer lap through the Taunus on a racing bike on a summer day, the pure long-distance riding is not the problem. Rather, it is the approximately 1800 meters of altitude that lead to a considerable energy consumption. Then two or three power gels are not enough, you have to top up with something else. The Swiss have now calculated that the cyclist has a consumption of around 2500 kilocalories per 100 kilometers. I looked up my Garmin watch’s log and their estimates range from 2300 to 2500 kilocalories. Now the Swiss are investigating what that means for the additional food intake. Anyone who compensates with one kilogram of beef releases around 13.3 kilograms of CO2 for its production, i.e. 133 grams per kilometer. So a meat-eating cyclist has the same carbon footprint as the driver of a nice compact SUV.
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A Škoda Karoq, for example, can be occupied by four or even five people, and that means the cyclist’s carbon footprint is so bad that this type of locomotion can no longer be recommended for reasons of climate protection. Unfortunately, the miserable balance also applies to vegetarians. Plant foods have a very low calorie density compared to animal foods. You would have to eat more than 13 kilograms of tomatoes to get 2500 kilocalories. Cycling should therefore remain a hobby that is practiced for the purpose of physical exercise and the joy of cycling. But it is not the sustainable mobility of tomorrow. That is and remains the car, as long as you calculate correctly and include all climate opportunity costs.