67% bicycle

[beige_alert]

2009-08-07:
car filled with fuel
car odometer: 27761 miles
bicycle odometer: 24359 kilometers

2009-09-19:
car re-filled with fuel
5.082 US gallons at $2.469, $12.55 total
car odometer: 28046 miles
bicycle odometer: 25276 kilometers

So, in 43 days, 285 miles (458 km) in the car and 570 miles (917 km) by bicycle. 67% bicycle.

56 miles/US gallon, 4.2 L/100km for the car alone, but if you add the bicycle distance in you get a notional 168 miles/US gallon or 1.4 L/100km. You'd have to add in the pizza and chocolate somehow to get a real number. 0.45 liters of gasoline a day at US prices is, well, pretty much a negligible cost. I do drive it a lot more in the winter, though.

Another thought: A very efficient car, left parked at home most days, averaged half a liter of fuel a day, which is, by American standards, pretty much nothing. Pour a half a liter of gasoline on the ground and set it on fire. OK, don't actually do that. But that would be a pretty darn good fire. You don't see the flames inside the engine, you don't even see the fuel, you just stick a hose in the side of the car now and then and see some numbers displayed on the pump. There is a lot of combustion going on in there, unseen. Great forces are commanded with a touch of that pedal on the right.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

You get 4.3 litre/100km? That's pretty darned good, what car do you drive and what type of driving? I aim to get 6.2 (10 miles per litre, or 45.5 miles per UK gallon -- at the moment close to 10p/mile fuel cost) and I can only do that without town/city driving (that increases it drastically).

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Toyota Prius, in a mix of city and highway (but mostly 55 miles/hour or below). The hybrid does both very well. I drive it more in the winter than in summer, and it burns more fuel in the winter because it can't shut the engine off until it warms up, so the real average is worse. The cumulative average since late 2006 is about 48.5 miles/US gallon, which is 4.8 l/100km or, I think, 58 in the big gallons.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I think in l/100km, it's what my car displays and is the right way up (if I'm using more fuel the number gets bigger).

OK, a Prius explains it, as does the 55mph (coming here to my lodgings today I got just over 5.1; by the end of the week that will be up to something close to 6 because my commute between lodging and work is only 8 miles and for half that time the engine hasn't warmed up to efficient temperature). I really hate going into (or through/round) Aylesbury at home, that averages close to 10 because it is all start/stop (something the Prius probably does quite well) and small distances (2-3 miles each way) on a cold engine.