Do you Drive Your own car to Work?
Tagged with: biking • car • driving • driving to work • exercise • fat • obesity • overweight • public transportation • weight
Found via TreeHugger…
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Welcome to my blog! Topics tend to focus on Science and Technology, but I throw in personal stuff too. I hope you enjoy!
October 18th, 2007 at 7:28 am
Most of these places have distance, culture and local laws in their favor.
1. Distance — there is very little land available for the waste of garages and parking lots in many of these countries. Also, cities/towns are very close to each other so riding a bike 10K to the next town is no big deal. The geographic distances in the US (just from your office building to lunch) are extended and stretched out needlessly. Too much land, not enough blood fertilizing it.
2. Culture — If you show up for work with a slight sweat, even in an office — it’s not as big deal as here. Here, people would view it as unprofessional if they showed up for work on a bike. Plus, how would they do lunch with a client? And picking up chicks? Every 17-year old in the US wants a car — many because suburbia home to school is 5+ miles.
3. Local laws in Europe encourage a green-attitude. Even the older generation supports this view. Maybe because the older generation has witnessed an apocalypse during their lifetime, that they like the idea of blue skies, and green meadows — to them it doesn’t appear as idealistic as practical. But in Europe, you do get a wider swath of immigration patterns (Africa, middle east, eastern Europe) so it’s not all monolithic, but after a while, the immigrants there get to understand the European mindset.
I don’t think the situation in the US would change much unless there is some catastrophic event. Too much focus on the “me” here, and “my” labor, “my” taxes, “my” liberties, etc. In some senses, the US is VERY existential in their outlook — every decision is all about “me”.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Ted, you hit the nail on the coffin. I think the Monkeysphere for those in the US is a lot smaller than other countries. And our culture for whatever reason breeds this idea that conservation is for pussies, and it really is too bad. All 3 points are examples of things we really need to change in this country and as quickly as possible. The urban sprawl the US has allowed is just ludicrous.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:30 pm
The correlation values don’t look very good in that graph, it’s sad to say. I find it hard to believe there is much correlation between taking the bus or subway to work and losing weight, so perhaps if you just included bikes and walking the correlation would improve. The sample is very, very small, though. I think it might make sense to look at a larger first world data sample. The data as presented is very coarse–the US has a population of almost all the other countries combined.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi Lucas, thanks for joining in…
If problems were fixed and a new graph was created would you really expect much change? Maybe the European values would be closer to US, but I wouldn’t expect much to change. The fact remains that USians drive everywhere as much as possible, walk the least, and eat the most when compared to other countries.
Really? Those that take the bus tend to drive less and have to find other means of getting around. I would think those taking the bus and subway would tend to walk more and worry less about driving, especially since these people would tend to live in places where driving is not easy, New York, Chicago, etc. I would expect those taking the subway to do more walking than those taking the bus, but still I would think more walking is in store for both methods when compared to driving a car.