Movements per Year

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
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J_
Posts: 883
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:12 pm
Location: Netherlands/Austria

Movements per Year

Post by J_ »

For 2020 I have kept track on my movements. I split it in motorized movements and body-powered movements.*)
    flight 850 km
      train 1000
        car 3200
          boat 300
            _______
              total 5350

              outdoor body powered
              movements:
              bicycle, foot, cross country ski, rowing combined: 8500 km

              ratio 5350/8500 or 1.5 times more bodypowered than motorized

              *I do not have to travel for work
              *I have not counted indoor steps. I have used chart and gps for my bodypowered movements and my car odometer for car-rides.
              *All shopping is done on foot or bicycle. The car is used to travel between the Netherlands and Austria since covid 19 makes it more safe than to travel by Air or Train.

              The end of the year is a good time to reflect on one’s way of life, this time I choose to compare movements. Feel free to compare too.

              (in 1980, when I had a salaried full-time job and had to commuter, the figures were:
                car 45.000 km
                outdoor body powered movements
                bicycle and foot 2.560 km

                ratio 45.000/2560 or 18 time more motorized than bodypowered.

                **) I had not so much time and energy left to sport a lot outdoors)

                chenda
                Posts: 3289
                Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
                Location: Nether Wallop

                Re: Movements per Year

                Post by chenda »

                Cool! I think you have a holiday home in Austria ?

                Most of my transport has been walking in 2020, car use maybe a few hundred kilometres tops. Although air miles in excessive of 11 000 kilometers so you're well ahead there :)

                basuragomi
                Posts: 419
                Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:13 pm

                Re: Movements per Year

                Post by basuragomi »

                Aircraft: 6,200 km
                Train: 60 km
                Bus: 20 km
                Car: 515 km
                Bicycle: 760 km
                Foot: 1,200+ km, but I usually ended up back where I started...

                Ratio: 0.29. But in two months it will be ~36. Nothing eats up the miles like ICE-powered machinery.

                7Wannabe5
                Posts: 9369
                Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

                Re: Movements per Year

                Post by 7Wannabe5 »

                I am reading Kim Stanley Robinson's new book "The Ministry for the Future", and he notes that approximately 1/3 of humans primarily transport themselves by aircraft of cars, 1/3 of humans primarily transport themselves by train or bicycle, and 1/3 of humans primarily transport themselves by foot.

                I currently reside in a terrible place where it is almost impossible to walk or ride a bicycle (like suburban LA without the good weather), so I bought a car, but I haven't been doing very much driving either. Maybe 2 to 1 motorized to human powered? Most of the walking just being for exercise rather than otherwise productive purposes, and I have had a lot more stuff delivered than usual, so that's a bit of a cheat.

                ducknald_don
                Posts: 322
                Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:31 pm
                Location: Oxford, UK

                Re: Movements per Year

                Post by ducknald_don »

                Aircraft: 0
                Train: 0
                Bus: 65 miles
                Car: 4,000 miles (est)
                Bike: 1,800 miles
                Foot: 580 miles (excluding round the house)

                I haven't flown on a plane for twenty years. We did have a train trip to Switzerland planned this year but that got put on hold because of the thing. Bike mileage is down slightly over the last couple of months because Mrs Don tripped and broke her arm and we didn't want to risk both being invalided.

                I'd like to get car journeys much closer to zero but I don't think that will happen until we move house.

                the_platypus
                Posts: 52
                Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2020 12:03 am

                Re: Movements per Year

                Post by the_platypus »

                I don't track any movements aside from driving. I figure any walking, biking, train riding, or bus riding I do is pretty sustainable; and therefore, I shouldn't worry about tracking it and just enjoy the journey. I haven't flown since 2018, and before that the last time I flew was when I was a baby. I live in a land-locked area, so not a lot of boat travel either.

                So from an environmental perspective, it's about getting driving miles down.

                2020: 1498 miles by car. According to my calculations, that's about 0.5 tonnes CO2e. For reference, to meet 1.5 C climate goals, a person needs to be at around 1 tonne CO2e in 30 years or less. So even this is too much.

                Realistically, I could just ditch the car and bum occasional rides from the significant other. This year, I took unnecessary grocery/errand/etc trips in my car just to keep the oil circulating, the rubber lubricated, rub the rust off the brakes, etc. At this level, I'm spending far more in registration/insurance/maintenance than actual fuel. But, a car provides "freedom" and "security", so we'll see how long until I viscerally realize the untruth in that...

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