How Motorcycles Could Eradicate Traffic
Swapping cars for bikes drastically reduces traffic and emissions, according to a new study.
We know that motorcycles get far better gas mileage than passenger cars and trucks, so it follows that if motorcycles replaced cars on the roads, gas consumption would decrease. But traffic would also drop significantly -- a revelation that comes courtesy of a new study by a Belgian transportation-research firm. 
To Dennis - Good except i disagree twice. Prius does get better gas mileage, but most cars mpg is not better than most bikes mpg. Also, cost is prohibitive. A new prius runs over 20 grand, a new Kawasaki Ninja 250cc is small enough to learn on, big enough for highways, and gets 50mpg at WORST, 70mpg is reasonable. Also, learning does not take years, while being good might, being proficient enough to be safe doesn't.
There are a couple of points not covered like there will be an increase in crashes/deaths for a couple of years as people have to LEARN how to ride a bike, the other is an increase in racing and other illegal activities.....for a bit until people realize wheelies at 110 on the freeway ARE NOT COOL and do something about it.
It will reduce traffic and can reduce smog. the only issue here in the U.S. is peoples love affair with cars. No matter what gets decided or enforced, people will continue to drive cars and continue to kill motorcyclist and bicyclist from lack of attention,speed,messing with the radio,etc etc. If some sort of tax or reg credit comes along with this AND proper training (not the MSF) More bikes will be used I think. They are also much easier to convert to methane,kerosene,alcohol,etc etc fuels. Which means when the gasoline prices rise to 10 bucks or higher you will still be able to get around without having to rely on gasoline.
One point that must be addressed properly............fuel efficiency........motorcycles DO NOT burn cleaner or get better miles per gallon than cars.......not yet at least.....
Most bikes carry 5 gallons of fuel and only get 150 to 200 miles per tank depending on make and model. So that is between 30 to 40 mpg..........the Prius gets between 40 and 50 mpg and needs a fill up maybe once a month. A bike needs a fill every couple of days if you commute..........So lets see, a typical bike weighs 400 to 500 lbs and gets 30 to 40 mpg..........
a Prius weighs in at around 4,000 lbs and gets between 40 to 50 mpg............seems to me the car is way more efficient than the bike and the car has less emissions.
Bikes will get there but they need about 10 more years or longer if the world credit situation does not stabilize.
I'm all for more bikes less cars, however, places like Alaska or North Dakota in the winter are not bike friendly and you know that there will be regs as the local governing bodies want the money, so how to make it fair?
heyfred - Nope. I've been to NYC, Chicago, and Washington for extended periods - and rode their trains.
BECAUSE traffic was so bad on their poorly planned roads that they force you to use the trains!
Please name just one place in the world where the trains when installed, decreased road traffic.
Don't break your search engine looking - there are none.
If road miles goes up in direct proportion to population increases, traffic always decreases. (Unless you put the roads in places without actual users).
IE you have 1,000,000 people and 5000 lane miles - you go to 2,000,000 people and 10,000 lane miles.
It's not rocket science. But many cities really don't want to end traffic. If you can get into a city easily, you can get out of it easily. So you might live outside it.
But you can't move goods on motorcycles or commuter trains/subways.
And there is no issue in the US that gets as much universal support and participation as driving.
We absolutely need many more new lanes of roads. This infrastructure is what makes business efficient and therefore competitive. Not to mention the millions of hours of wasted time, wasted fuel, and emmissions that poorly planned or underfunded roads creates.
And where exactly do the spouse's and kids go? Do you buy them all mini bikes or ride them around bitch... lined up one after the other behind you like monkeys? Its sounds all so simple and reasonable until you think about the practicality of it all. Children in side cars? motorcycles designers building family friendly rigs that can haul everybody around? And where would that get you? Back to a car i would imagine. Its simply not a feasible alternative in America that is unless they create an affordable nation wide public transportation system, city to farm, one side of the country to the other.
Belgium can extrapolate all they want, but it simply would not compensate the costs of completely changing the entire infrastructure in order to accommodate everyone else besides single commuters,which in this country is probably far less than half of the people on the roads on a daily basis.
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