101 reasons to love cycling in London #6 - zero emissions!

Regardless of whether you believe in climate change or not (and frankly, I see no sane reason why you wouldn't) I think everyone agrees that the release of toxic particles such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere can't be a good thing.  One of the great joys of cycling is, of course, the fact that it is emissions free (which is why, of course, we don't pay 'road tax' - these days it's called vehicle emissions tax and if you ride a bike, or drive an electric car, you don't have to pay it either - honest!) Whilst of course there are a certain amount of carbon emissions released in the construction and delivery of your bicycle these are minimal in comparrison to the emissions for the production and delivery of a car. 
And the emissions for driving 5 miles to work and back for the working year in an average family size car? (I'm going here for the UK's favourite car, the Ford Focus, a 3 door 1.6ltr manual, in silver, naturally) 


You'd emit 157 grams of carbon per k/m.


10 miles = 16.09km
16.09kms x 227 working days in a year = 3652.43kms per annum
3652.43kms x 157grams of CO2 per km =
573431.51 grams of CO2 (or half a tonne)


That is to say, your little Ford Focus would emit half it's own weight in CO2 every year - just to drive 5 miles to work and back.


Your bike?  ZERO!  Is this a reason to love cycling in London?  With our city great capital having some of the very worst air pollution in Europe , I like to think so.