# WA lawmaker: ‘Bicylists are actually polluting when they ride’



## viciouscycle (Aug 22, 2009)

The title says enough.........................:mad2::mad2::mad2:


WA lawmaker:


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## [email protected] (Feb 8, 2013)

This is pretty silly. I wonder if Rep. Orcutt realizes that by his logic he's polluting when he speaks?


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## DaveT (Feb 12, 2004)

Unfortunately, you can't legislate against saying stupid things.


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## Dave Cutter (Sep 26, 2012)

The article was stupid! But I heard something... I don't remember where... that made some sense. 

A lot of motorist hate the delays caused by a very few cyclists. I would guess this guy is one.... that has done the math.

Say my normal drive into work took 10 minutes. But to save fuel I replaced driving to work with a bicycle commute. Taking the same route by bicycle caused me to double my ride time... so now I have a "pollution free" 20 minute bicycle ride each way to and from work. 

OK... except nothing is pollution free. Even though I don't consume petrol fuels... I do consume foods grown and shipped using petrol fuels. And even though the math on the consumption... does favor the cyclist... there is more math to it than just that. 

Because I am not as fast as my fellow motorists... traffic has to adjust to my speed and/or change lanes to pass by me and continue at their previous normal speed. Altering traffic patterns may cause some slight delays in the traffic patterns on the normal well traveled routes used during rush hours. 

Say 200 automobiles (on average) pass by my bicycle in each direction of travel. Maybe 100 cars in each direction experience absolutely no delay whatsoever due to my cycling. But the remaining 100 motorists are slightly delayed. Some by as much as 1 minute... but on average only 40 seconds.

So the accumulative drive time delay caused by my cycling is actually 40 minutes each way. Or... an additional 30 minutes of automobile drive time each way when compared to my original 10 minute drive.

The math is sound. The savings I had experienced were only a dollar savings... that are limited to only my own expenses. Environmentally.... simple solutions often have unforeseen negative results. In this case my bicycle commute would cause a increase in petrol fuel use.


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