The Oil Drum

Nothing wrong with walking [it does burn calories], but you are not maximizing your personal thermo-efficiency potential-- this will be a life or death issue in the future when there is very little food and clean water to go around. A good bicycle with baskets will be worth its weight in gold.

When gas prices start spiraling really high, people will not have any choice but to pedal or go for small motorized vehicles.  The heat is uncomfortable, but not a problem if you stay adequately hydrated, slow down your pedal rate, and take frequent breaks.  On the bright side, we never have to shovel the sunshine!  Come crunch time, the obese will slim down-- they will have no other choice.  Pedaling is still much more time and energy efficient than walking.  Lots more fun too.  Here is a good link:

http://tinyurl.com/bf4tg

Excerpt:
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Man, unaided by any tool, gets around quite efficiently. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer in ten minutes by expending 0.75 calories. Man on his feet is thermodynamically more efficient than any motorized vehicle and most animals. For his weight, he performs more work in locomotion than rats or oxen, less than horses or sturgeon. At this rate of efficiency man settled the world and made its history. At this rate peasant societies spend less than 5 per cent and nomads less than 8 per cent of their respective social time budgets outside the home or the encampment.

Man on a bicycle can go three or four times faster than the pedestrian, but uses five times less energy in the process. He carries one gram of his weight over a kilometer of flat road at an expense of only 0.15 calories. The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man's metabolic energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other animals as well.
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Now you understand why I earlier typed why a good bicycle with baskets will be worth its weight in gold.

Unfortunately, the Zimbabweans did not have a Powerdown Plan and are paying heavily for it now.  The lack of planning for transport alternatives has made bicycle demand one of the leading causes of inflation:

http://tinyurl.com/pphhs

Excerpt:
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Inflation in Zimbabwe soared to 613% in January, the state Central Statistical Office said on Tuesday.  The highest price increases recorded during the year were for postal services, up 3,000%, bicycles, 2,687%, and medicines, 1,367%.
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Just imagine what the bicycle theft rate must be-- I bet an owner never lets the bike be out of his sight.  Having a bicycle is now a life or death issue in Zimbabwe--I bet people are killed over bicycles.  Sad.

If a Zimbabwean is desperately scavenging for food by purely walking: he/she might be burning more calories than they harvest-- they are only hastening their starvation.

I understand your safety concern about no seatbelts on bicycles & motorcycles & quads, but in a world of declining net energy we will not be able to afford many 'safety luxuries'.  For example: the simple act of adjusting the house thermostat is much safer than the future swinging of an axe for hours on end to generate the same amount of equivalent heat in firewood.  We just need to mentally adjust to a more dangerous existence.  Such will be postPeak life, better get used to it.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?