If we all cycled like the Dutch, CO2 emissions would drop by 690 million tonnes

savjee@lemmy.world to World News@beehaw.org – 134 points –
euronews.com
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I like this idea in principle, but the annual CO2 emissions for 2018 was about 35 billion tons. This makes the drop barely even impact our total production, let alone be enough to stop global warming.

It's still a worthy goal, but we'd be better off focusing on bigger wins, where even a few percent of carbon reductions would dwarf this number (or pushing for both).

This may work in the Netherlands, but in my country (Canada) where it's a 2 hour drive to the next city, it simply isn't feasible. I do, however, wish that my city was much more bicycle friendly and we had easier and cheaper options for bikes that could be enclosed from the weather.

We need high speed trains between cities with a car for storing bicycles

I think we need electric trains across the whole country and into the arctic and territories. Encourage more eco tourism. We can barely access northern Ontario much less the territories. This would require nuclear power, and as a byproduct, tritium which is needed for next generation fusion reactors. We could become the next Saudi Arabia.

This may work in the Netherlands, but in my country (Canada) where it’s a 2 hour drive to the next city, it simply isn’t feasible.

It's probably safe to assume that the vast majority of bike trips in the NL are intra-city, not inter-city. Quoted from "Cycling Facts 2018", released by the NL government:

  • Of all trips involving a distance up to 7.5 kilometres, one-third are made by car and one-third are made by bicycle.
  • Of all trips involving a distance ranging from 7.5 to 15 kilometres, 70 per cent are made by car and 15 per cent are made by bicycle.
  • Between 2005 and 2015, the use of bicycles in first-mile transport to the main Dutch train stations (top 16 of embarking and disembarking passengers) has increased from 36 per cent to 44 per cent.
  • Bicycle use for last-mile transport also shows some (slight) growth: from 10 per cent in 2005 to 14 per cent in 2015. This upward trend has been boosted by the introduction of rental bicycles for season-ticket holders: in 2008, such rental bicycles were used for 0.5 million rides, versus 1.9 million in 2015 and an impressive 3.2 million in 2017.

It doesn't really matter how much non-city is between your cities, you can bike in town and use public transport for long distances. If the infrastructure has been invested in.

I do, however, wish that my city was much more bicycle friendly and we had easier and cheaper options for bikes that could be enclosed from the weather.

Yes, that's key!