by Ryan Kapsar
.....
In some countries, such as the Netherlands, the price of a gallon of gas is around $8, this is one way the government
is trying to change behavior. However, drivers still behave as if
accelerating doesn’t cause higher fuel consumption and the Netherlands
can afford to push drivers away from cars; there are bike paths
everywhere. In most major cities it is easier to get from place to
place on bicycle than by car. A country like the United States does not
have that option. Additionally, a developing country has even less of an
option of using bicycles.
For bikes to be an efficient alternative there needs to be large flat areas that are easy to traverse using a bicycle.
Hilly areas are extremely difficult to travel if bikes are used to
carry goods as well as people. In the Netherlands it’s possible to carry
a case of beer on the back of the bike because there are so few hills
to climb. However, in a hilly country like Afghanistan or India it’d be
extremely difficult to do the same on anything other than a motorize
bike.
In the upcoming decades we will be seeing a huge increase in the number of people with vehicles. Tata is now producing a $2000 car, which is just above the GDP per capita
of India. The GDP per capita of India is likely to continue to
increase. If India moves in a direction of the United States, which has
roughly 250 million passenger vehicles (roughly 3 cars for every 4
people), this will lead to roughly 900 million passenger vehicles on the
road.
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| Amsterdam biker, by hiro_putra |
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