Whats More Efficient? Cars or Bikes?

As we continue to head through the recent financial crisis, and on the back of oil prices being at their highest levels in decades - most people are now beginning to take a good look at a simple term called “efficiency”. As consumers hunt for ways to cut costs, most of them are thinking of new ways they can make their daily activities more efficient, without having to sacrifice too much, or face too much inconvenience. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the car vs motorbike trade off wins the discussion medal for the “modes of transport” topic. Indeed, families are considering the switch from fuel guzzling cars to fuel efficient motorcycles - in order to get them to and from work.

Let’s take a closer look at this switch. What implications would it have for a family? We will look at a family with and without children. Ok, so beginning with the family without children - switching from the nice fast coupe to a motorcycle. Obviously, the motorcycle would have to be shared, because there is more than one person in a family. This automatically presents an issue. Additionally, as only two people can ride on a motorcycle at once, the issues surrounding the movement of groups of people will surely be one of the biggest turn-offs in the swap.

Secondly, the family with children. As you may have gathered from the stance I took on the average “family” above - with no children - swapping the people mover for an efficient motorcycle may actually work out to be far less efficient. Families with children often need to do much more travelling, with many more people, than an equivalent family without children. Hence once again, I would caution against the swap over for these people.