How fat is your ride?

Let’s say Big Bob drives an average car which weighs about 1800kg.  Bob himself is, well, rather big. We call this obesity nowadays. Bob also suffers from terminal laziness which sees him rather driving around the block 7 times until that parking space right in front of the shop opens up. Bob doesn’t own a bicycle and, if he can help it, he hardly ever walks.

Lean Luke is crazy about his bike. His bike weighs about 14kg. Luke and his bike have about the same body shape and Luke would much rather cycle for miles in pouring rain than be trapped in traffic behind the wheel of a smelly car.

Things are not looking good for Big Bob. The more he drives, it seems the bigger he becomes. One day Big Bob had to get a bigger car, with a bigger engine, which costs more, uses more fuel and is more taxing on the roads and the environment. And Luke just keeps on getting leaner.

*A UK study strongly suggests that obese people tend to have larger motor engines which emit a much ‘fatter’ emission than non-motorized transport, such as a bicycle.