[Ryan]

I can't wait to see less traffic, less noise, less one person in a massive SUV with a cell phone glued to the side of their head. I've never bothered to buy a car. Even in this pedestrian-unfriendly country it is possible to get by without a car. I do have my license but rarely need it. Once in a great while for work. Last year I had to do a daily commute for work (with a work-owned van) for about five months. I was so glad when that ended! I can't believe people actually choose to do that. It's insane.

Re: solar, as others have pointed out properly applied it can be very effective. People just need to forget about doing things they way they are now.

[Bandidoz]

Road vehicles are a very inefficient use of fuels, rubber tyres on tarmac is high resistance resulting in heavy consumption..........

If a mountain bike has tyres with great big grooves there is less rubber in contact with the surface, hence less grip........

You have to consider where the energy is going. In the case of tyres it's because they bend; if they're pumped to a higher pressure, they bend less, and thus absorb less energy. The energy is, of course, dissipated as heat.

Racers are easier to cycle because there is less rubber being bent. Cars with under-inflated tyres do less MPG because more rubber is being bent. The most effificent bike would be a boneshaker!

[27010]

As you say the more rubber on the road the higher the resistance, hence the cylce comparison, mountain bikes have wider tyres than racers, thats why the cyles in the cycle races have very narrow tyres. Most cars (UK) nowadays have wide tyres and they are getting wider, a typical tyre in the not too distant past was a 155x13, the 155 bit is the width in mm, the 13 is the rim diameter in inches. a 135 x12 or 13 was the common on a small car, fiesta, peugeot etc, a nice narrow tyre, Nowadays you see very few of these tyres, on most vehicles, common sizes are are 195x15 or 205x 16 or various derivatives of this, you can therefore see the amount of tread on the road is much greater, resulting in fuel waste.
And why do we have large rim diameter and wide tyres on cars these days?

So they look cool........ how pathetic!

[27010]

Sorry if yesterdays post lacked some of the info and caused some confusion, but I had been in the pub next door wasting some of the worlds resources.