The Facts about Getting Around
Here at Sightline, we like counting things. 2006 was a year full of interesting statistics, so we thought we’d share a few of the more telling stats we ran across last year about how we get around and the fuel we use to do it—from our food to parking to gasoline, of course.
Cascadia Scorecard News
January 2007
Sightline provides research, statistics, and analysis so you can share the information with others, loaded with data to prove your point. Here are a few of the more fascinating facts we ran across in 2006 about transportation, fuel, and getting around in general:
1. Walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week, adds 1.3–1.5 years to your life, on average. So (we've roughly calculated), for every minute you spend walking, you get three back.
2. The US food system consumes so much fossil fuel—for growing, transporting, marketing, refrigerating, and even cooking food—that a pedestrian gets the equivalent of only about 75 miles per gallon.
3. Living in a neighborhood with pedestrian-friendly design has been associated with up to a one-point reduction in the body mass index, which can translate in up to 7 fewer pounds of extra body weight.
4. Among children living within a mile of school, the percentage of children walking or biking to school plunged from nearly 90 percent in 1969 to 31 percent in 1999. 
6. Mile for mile, taking transit is more than 10 times safer than driving a car.
7. Residents of the US Northwest are on track to have used a little less gasoline in 2006 than in 1999.
8. For drivers who put on 40,000 miles per year, for example taxi drivers, driving a hybrid can save 10 times as much on gas as for people who drive 4,000 miles.
For further reading, here are some solutions for improving our transportation systems, our health, and our cities.
Sources
site credits |
= premium content; free registration required