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The Fuel Cost of Obesity
thecarchik writes "America loves to complain about gas mileage and the cost of gasoline. As it turns out, part of the problem is us. How much does it really matter? A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 1.1 percent increase in self-reported obesity, which translates into extra weight that your vehicle has to haul around. The study estimates that 1 billion extra gallons of fuel were needed to compensate for passenger weight gained between 1960 and 2002."
ridin' Obese; they hatin'.
From the TFA:
One key finding was that almost 1 billion gallons of gasoline per year can be attributed to passenger weight gain in non-commercial vehicles between 1960 and 2002--this translates to .7 percent of the total fuel used by passenger vehicles annually.
So it was actually 1 billion gallons per year, not total. Seems like the blog words it poorly and that they're really saying that if we were all the same weight as we were in 1960, we would have used 1 billion gallons less fuel last year than we actually did. But that is still only a 0.7% increase in yearly consumption.
More fun is this observation:
One other result of the obesity problem is the increase risk of crashes as noted in a recent study and that is also due to the fact that obese drivers are less likely to buckle up because seat belts may not fit properly.
So basically, fat people are looking for Darwin Awards. Now just make sure they are all distracted on their giant phones, and problem solved.
You trust the advice of a jackass who's weapon of choice in the zombie apocalypse is a double barrel shotgun? Sheesh!
Remember, if you rub your food on a piece of paper and it turns transparent? It's your window to success!
So, you're talking about wind resistance, which is independent of the mass of the object -- only dependent on speed, shape, and air characteristics. When cruising, your fuel consumption is dominated by this (unless you're hauling a heavy load up an incline).
The mass-dependent fuel consumption is going to be primarily in acceleration (and hills), so the dependence of fuel economy on weight depends on driving habits.
Of course, fuel economy depends much more strongly on driving habits than it does on weight. For that matter, it also depends on strongly on engine characteristics and vehicle shape and size.
If you really want to be snarky, you could probably claim that the additional fuel needed to haul around an obese person is more than offset by the fact that they don't drive to the gym.
Reading all these posts is making me hungry. Someone pass me another bag of cheetos and a coke.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
This sounds like a perfect argument for regenerative braking... The easy conclusion: fat people should all drive hybrids because they store more kinetic energy
Did they compare the Fat guy in his 40's who doesn;t go out much to the skinny d-bag jock type that is always driving out to bars three or more times a week to pick up women?
The Study is flawed because it doesn't take to effect that the fat people don't go out driving as much as thin socially active people.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...