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Murica (lemmy.ml)
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[-] SoleInvictus 31 points 6 hours ago

Humans are actually unusually energy efficient for mammals when walking and even more so when cycling. Here's a little info graphic showing a breakdown.

One thing to keep in mind if you have a dog is they're less energy efficient than humans. While dogs can run faster, a reasonably fit human can easily out distance an equally fit dog when walking or distance running.

[-] TDCN@feddit.dk 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Nice graphic. ~~But it seems like it doesn't factor in kg of mass moved. A human and a bike is a lot lighter than a car or a horse. You could also argue that the vehicle weigh should be ignored but then again you could easily argue back that weight of goods move can possibly be a lot higher with a car if you load it up to capacity~~. Ignore that. I did not see it said 5 riders for the car

[-] SoleInvictus 5 points 5 hours ago

I'm back with better data. I'm assuming the travel path is perfectly flat because I don't feel like modeling elevation changes. I'm being energy efficient (read: lazy).

For cycling, I'm using the global average human weight of 62 kg, assuming the cycle is 8 kg, and the pace is 10 kph, which is pretty relaxed.

For walking, I'm using the 62 kg person walking at 4 kph.

For driving with petrol, we'll use the same spherical 62 kg human and a 2024 Toyota Prius with a fuel efficiency of 4.8 L/100 km and a mass of 1570 kg. One liter of petrol is approximately 8174 kcal. Double the energy expenditure for an estimate for your typical SUV.

For electric, I chose a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N with an energy efficiency of 21.2 kWh/100km and a mass of 2235 kg. One kilowatt-hour is approximately 860 kcal.

Walking: 0.74 kcal•km^-1^•kg^-1^
Cycling: 0.34 kcal•km^-1^•kg^-1^
Driving(p): 0.24 kcal•km^-1^•kg^-1^
Driving(e): 0.08 kcal•km^-1^•kg^-1^

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 42 minutes ago

Wait so cars are more efficient than cycling now ?

[-] SoleInvictus 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It still doesn't give us kcal•km^-1^•kg^-1^ (or an equivalent), which is what I was looking for. We could do some math to get us some loose estimates, though. I'll do exactly that and report back shortly.

this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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