That's a really good idea, actually - I'm imagining a bus where everyone pedals and it goes up to ~70 kph, and an able-bodied person who isn't pedaling getting yelled at by the person behind him.

I wonder if that's doable? You'd have to make the whole thing much lighter than current buses are, and hills might be an issue.

resource extraction, refining, factories and the infrastructure enabling it all generates the bulk of emissions before anybody shows up at the store.

@Haha
Hills would be a challenge but think about it. Even if only urban areas on relatively level land utilized this lowtech, think of the chunk percentage-wise that would put a bite into fossil fuel use. Of course it can be done. Maybe not 60 mph but seriously, it's not that difficult to exceed 30 mph on a bicycle. Provided you don't get hit by a car.

The only way to do 60 mph with 1 person on a bike, is head to the Coquihalla summit and come back down

> couldn't they develop a massively efficient pedally car?
> Something that requires as much effort as walking to operate?
> a gearing ratio that will take the vehicle up to 60 miles an hour on
> human power?

A pedal car consisting of a frame around 2 bicycles side-by-side with a massive set of gears that could get to 100 km/h would *not* be safe surrounded by 3000+ lbs vehicles.

If it were as effortless to accelerate as walking, it'd take 5+ minutes to get to traffic speed, making it a bottleneck on the roads, and unsafe for everyone on the roads.

Doing all this with a pedal-powered actual car would add several multiples of slowness to the equation.

> I am obviously no physics major

Well, yeah.

Me too.

> couldn't they come up with something simple and healthy for
> everybody that would help our abused planet too?

Looks like batteries have won, whether through billionaire funded electric cars (a big step in the right direction), or all the e-bikes, scooters, hover boards that are so popular.

Sometimes you just can't arrive all sweaty from pedalling. Or wet from rain.

> I guess I can keep dreaming...

You can, it's good.

A world where 8 billion people drive cars isn’t sustainable no matter how we power it. Put those billions of dollars toward walkable infrastructure, invest in the livability and desirability of neighborhoods everywhere.

(Oh whoops, that wouldn’t continue to enrich the oil, automotive, and concrete industries… nevermind!)

@ Nice idea
Your comments are good but it doesn't take into account we need to do an about face on our polluting ways now. Not tomorrow. Now. Arriving sweaty to work has already been dealt with by progressive employers who provide showers, lockers and bicycle lock ups. Batteries haven't won. Mining of the oceans and potentially the moon are being explored which doesn't solve the problem of our rampant resource extraction which continues to degrade our planet and upset the fine balance of nature. You are also assuming a massive set of gears which may not be necessary. I will keep dreaming, hoping we don't kill our planet and thus humanity by our misguided ways.