Are Motorcycles Greener than Cars?

© Ken Bingenheimer / RumBum.com

Riding a motorcycle is fun. Plus, it's nice to know that you're helping the environment when you ride one, instead of driving a car, right? I mean, motorcycles go a lot farther on a gallon of gas, so obviously they're a very green alternative to cars, right?

Actually, it's not that simple.

Motorcycles do use less gas, particularly when you compare a motorcycle to something like a Hummer. And, less gas equals less CO2, a chief contributor to global warming, but CO2 is not the only thing coming out of your tailpipe. You also have hydrocarbons – the pollutants that contribute to smog.

Catalytic converters eliminate most hydrocarbon emissions in cars but, due to their size and expense, they're not used on most motorcycles (it's where we get that vroom vroom). So, the emissions coming from most bikes contain far more hydrocarbons than even those coming from the Hummer.

Another reason we like to think that motorcycles are greener than cars is due to their size. Motorcycles are smaller than cars and certainly their carbon footprint in manufacturing is less than that of cars, right?

A calculator made available by Carnegie Mellon University called the "Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment" method, says not. It appears that when cars and motorcycles of comparable monetary value are compared, the pollutants from building the motorcycle exceed those from building the car.

Still, it's not that simple. While building a $15,000 motorcycle may result in greater pollution than building a $15,000 car, the average motorcycle costs considerably less than $15,000, while the average car costs far more. So, it would seem that building the average motorcycle does create less environment degradation than building the average car because less materials are being used. Score one for motorcycles.

What else?

"There are huge numbers of variables to consider," says Ty van Hooydonk, communications director with the Motorcycle Industry Council.  "Is the time traveled, over the same distance, reduced by taking the motorcycle over the car? That can reduce emissions, obviously, because you spend less time on the road. Besides less gasoline, there’s less use of other chemicals and oils in a motorcycle throughout the life of the bike. There’s no air-conditioner. Many bikes are air-cooled, so no anti-freeze. The list goes on. Many bikes take around two or three quarts of fresh oil when it needs changing. Many cars take five.

"In California, a big state for motorcycling, and in many other places around the world, motorcycles are allowed to lane-share and filter through clogged car traffic. That means that instead of sitting there idling away, burning fuel and polluting the air without getting anywhere, a motorcycle is almost always getting its rider somewhere, and sooner, too."

As for finding a definitive answer to the question of which type of vehicle is greener, van Hooydonk says, "Can you see how much there is to consider and to uncover? This is a monumental task. It would require factories to be very open. It requires detailed record-keeping and extrapolation to estimate environmental impact over a series of years."

So maybe going green is not the best reason for owning and riding a motorcycle. They may ultimately be greener than cars but don't base your purchasing decision on that. Base it instead on the enjoyment you'll get out of riding. And don't discount the other green factor; that is, the additional green you'll have in your pocket from going on two wheels rather than four.

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