[honkhonkpants]

This analysis makes the same mistake that innumerable other analysts have made before: that going a mile is something worth doing. If you stipulate that everything is a mile apart, then you're guaranteed to get this outcome.

The point of walking is that if you throw out the cars then everything is much closer together, and then you don't have to walk a mile. If I start from the Ferry Building in San Francisco and walk a mile up Sacramento street, I'll pass thousands of establishments of all kinds. If I start at the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and walk a mile I will pass literally every single thing there is in the old city. In a walkable city you'd never need to walk a mile, so finding out what is the most energy efficient mode of going a mile is relatively pointless. What you actually need to know is the most energy efficient form of building, not the of transport.

[mc32]

On the other hand people walk, jog and run and bike and stationarily bike many miles for nothing but to keep in shape. So people waste a lot of energy after overconsuming energy.

And then there is the flaneur.

[aaron695]

This is pure trolling and has nothing to do with the article.

It purely was looking at the cost in fuel of go a mile compare to other transport.

Be it across a current city, desert or large dessert.

[honkhonkpants]

I'm not trolling. This kind of analysis is frequently trotted out to argue against transit, cycling infrastructure, and even sidewalks. Take for example this (totally moronic) post at the Freakonomics blog:

http://freakonomics.com/2012/11/07/can-mass-transit-save-the...

It's an anti-transit argument based entirely on energy per passenger-mile traveled, which is only relevant if you think a passenger-mile is a good thing which should be maximized.

[prodigal_erik]

How many Ethiopian restaurants, improv theaters, and dueling piano bars did you pass? A lot of niche interests can't sustain themselves at all with only a small fraction of a small population.

[et-al]

I know it's a rhetorical question, but San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood actually offers all three in 0.6 miles:

Unscripted Theatre Company > Johnny Foley's > Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen

In five years time, this will probably not be the case.

[honkhonkpants]

Well you got me on the piano bars but as far as Ethiopian food goes there are dozens in my relatively walkable city and I just spot-checked the first car-choked blasted expanse that came to mind (Phoenix) and there are only five in a much larger metro area.

If I was an Ethiopian restaurant owner would I prefer a restaurant in a dense neighborhood with five families living in apartments right on top of me, or would I prefer to be in a strip mall at the corner of an American suburb with nobody in walking distance and only a few hundred families within a mile? I know which one I'd want.

[prodigal_erik]

Odd, are you in a destination for Ethiopian immigrants? I would have expected something more like the single restaurant serving the entire Napa valley. Most people don't even know Ethiopia has a cuisine, much less seek it out.

[honkhonkpants]

Yes we have many Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in Oakland and Berkeley.

[qq66]

All of those things are most likely to be found in dense cities like New York and Chicago, not the far less walkable exurban sprawls (although those places do need parking because people come from afar)

[tartuffe78]

Anecdotal from the Midwest:

Ethiopian restaurant - 12.6 miles

Improv Theatre - 64.9 miles

Dueling Pianos - 65.1 miles

[smadge]

I agree! "Driving a mile is infinitely more expensive than staying where you are, from a fuel perspective"

[vixen99]

So the infinite universe is no big deal then?