Controversy, what controversy? Bring on the bicycling and the walking!

You might want to consider a life cycle energy analysis, though. The steel, aluminum and rubber for that bike didn't come free. But over the life of a well maintained bike, I would think that the embodied energy becomes a trivial number compared to the energy expended in mobility. Of course, most shoes are also a nice sized puddle of petroleum.

Also, how about the energy efficiency of sailing? There, the energy use would be completely limited to embodied energy, maintenance, and perhaps supplementary power plants for use in harbors or if winds flag. Obviously not for use in all circumstances, although there are some land sailers.

There may also be scalar issues to consider. However, I think that there is far less material in my bike than in my fraction of the subway train I just took.

Side note: Once I read a study that determined that it takes people substantially more energy to walk up ramps than to walk up stairs. However, due to generally lower slopes, ramps require appreciably less energy per steps than do staircases. Thought you'd want to know...

Best use of resources is rescuing an old bike. If your commute is only a couple of miles, any old bike will do. If it is longer, a used better model can be found. Well built bikes are unbelievably durable machines. Keep the wheels true and the moving stuff oiled and it will keep on going for you.
Also vintage is 'in'.

My favorite quote shamelessly displayed yet again-

Modern industrialized states [are] resentful of a few cleverly arranged pounds of tubes and spokes. The cyclist creates everything from almost nothing, becoming the most energy-efficient of all moving animals and machines and, as such, has a disingenuous ability to challenge the entire value system of a society. Cyclists don't consume enough. They can propel themselves 1500 pollution-free miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of petrol. The bicycle may be too cheap, too available, too healthy, too independent and too equitable for its own good. In an age of excess it is minimal and has the subversive potential to make people happy in an economy fuelled by consumer discontent. Jim McGurn, 1994

I think the article "Bart Simpson Drives a Prius" is the dumbest title I've seen on your site.....and is clearly 'reaching' in it's attempt to provide web content that is sustainability related. I'd rather see less content on your site with more substance.

Also, please do some more in depth articles on plastic grocery bags, where they are made, who recycles them, efficiency, etc etc.

I love bicycles; especially for solo journeys of less than 10 miles, they're clearly more efficient in terms of amount of energy and materials required to get from point A to point B.

However, plenty of people are not comfortable riding a bike in (or near) traffic, in rain or snow, in summer heat, etc. Also, while a bike with a strong rider can carry quite a lot of cargo, he or she cannot tow a shiny new eco-friendly fridge or other large objects.

Finally, while a car with one occupant is very inefficient, 100 bicycles, while perhaps more efficient than a subway car, are certainly not convenient enough for anyone but a zealot to favor.

Bicycles and Cars, a Polarity in Civilization Design

On Bicycles

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine." (John Howard)

"Bicycle is the most energy-efficient form of transport ever devised. It doesn't emit pollution, it runs on renewable energy, it makes its user healthier, it's easy to repair, it requires little in the way of pavement or parking lot, and while only 10 percent of the world's people can afford a car, 80 percent of the world's people can afford a bicycle." (John C. Ryan, Seven Wonders: Everyday Things for a Healthier Planet)

"The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon." (Bill Strickland, The Quotable Cyclist)

"When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience, the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle." (Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills)

"It is curious that with the advent of the automobile and the airplane, the bicycle is still with us. Perhaps people like the world they can see from a bike, or the air they breathe when they're out on a bike. Or they like the bicycle's simplicity and the precision with which it is made. Or because they like the feeling of being able to hurtle through air one minute, and saunter through a park the next, without leaving behind clouds of choking exhaust, without leaving behind so much as a footstep." (Gurdon S. Leete)

"Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds . . . man can hitch wings to his feet. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own." (Louis J. Helle, Jr., Spring in Washington)

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race . . . Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia" (H.G. Wells)

On Cars

"The average American's involvement with their automobile is an astonishing 1600 hours a year. Working in order to buy it, actually driving it, getting it repaired and so on. This means that when all car mileage in a given year is divided by the time spent supporting the car, the average car owner is travelling at an average speed of 5 miles per hour. To attain the speed of a bicycle we are devastating our cities, air, lungs and lives." (Ivan Illich, social commentator)

"Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day." (Bill Vaughan)

"In an underdeveloped country, don't drink the water; in a developed country, don't breathe the air." (Changing Times magazine)

"As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas, or, They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them." (U Thant, speech, 1970)

Do you have any idea what the consequences are for biking in the United States? You will be attacked, shuned, possibly beaten, and most certainly made to feel like a failure. The law is very clear - own a car, preferable two, and talk about it constantly. Never, ever, go anywhere without it. And complain about parking as much as possible. ALWAYS assume others are driving. Never ever consider anything else. Do not disobey.