I just noticed this post about some rather clever bike-advocacy shirts at Carectomy and thought to myself "53 Miles per Burrito is a really excellent slogan...but it's also a really excellent point." The question becomes...is the human body actually more efficient than an automobile and, if so...why?

A little bit of research tells us that riding a light-weight bicycle consumes about 35 calories per mile. Walking consumes about 100 calories per mile and is, of course, considerably slower.

Driving a car ends up consuming 1,800 calories per mile. This sure makes one think twice about biofuel, doesn't it?

I try to eat about 2,000 calories per day. If that food was converted to biofuel (as most of it could, since most of it is carbohydrates) it would drive a car less than a mile. But if I use it to bike, I could go 57 miles!

So the question remains, how many miles can I extract from a burrito. Well? You may be surprised to discover this, but a Chipotle burrito with beef, beans, cheese, sour cream and guacamole, comes in at an astounding 1,300 calories. Bust a gut with one of those and you'll find enough energy to travel 37 miles. If it were gasoline instead of a burrito, those same calories wouldn't even get you a full mile.

So why is the human body so much more efficient than automobiles?

It turns out that they aren't that much more efficient. Car engines aren't superbly efficient, that's for sure. But what's much more inefficient is the fact that 95% of the net weight of a car is car...only 5% is the driver. With a bike, the equation is shifted significantly toward the weight of the driver, not the vehicle. Only 65 of the 1800 calories used to move the car are used to move the driver. The rest is used to move the doors and the roof and the airbags and the cup holders around with you.

But still, bicycling comes out on top. Our bodies turn out to be almost two times better at converting calories to motion than cars.

Sometimes, if you want to see some powerful environmental technology, you don't have to look any further than your big beefy quadriceps.

Modern Biking: A Photo Essay

Sometimes the Path is Perilous...

New Hybrid Technology Flexes Its HE-Manpower


Relying on manpower instead of a motor (Carectomy’s preferred method) means lower emissions. New hybrid technology is making promising progress toward more practical, eco-friendly transportation that uses human exertion and electricity instead of fuel. The HE (Human Electric) Hybrid Vehicle hasn’t yet hit dealerships, though the concept “car” offers a glimpse of the wheels we’ll be driving in coming years.

High-Speed Rail Coming to America

High-speed rail is finally coming to America. However, it's Argentina and not the United States that will be the first American country to build a high-speed rail system and join the modern age of transportation.

The popularity of high-speed passenger rails is picking up in cities throughout the world. Latin America, Europe, and China have big plans to construct or expand such rail systems in the near future.

EPA Protects Cars, Not the Planet

Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the U.S. Senate’s Committee on the Environment and Public works, released further evidence Wednesday against top EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Ignoring the unanimous sentiments of his staff, Johnson undermined his colleagues—and the law—to stop tailpipe emissions laws from passing in at least 16 states, including California. The laws aimed to lower greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by a third.