Wednesday 30 July 2008

Just how average are you?

SHOPPERS too lazy to walk to the supermarket add nearly 1.9m tonnes to our greenhouse gas emissions each year, a survey has found.

A national audit into everyday shopping habits by online search directory
TrueLocal (owned by the publisher of the Herald Sun) also found shoppers who travelled outside their local area to make their purchases were robbing local businesses of up to $92 billion a year in revenue....
The study revealed that over 12 months, the average Australian made more than 43 trips, travelling up to 477km outside of their local area and spending more than $7000. Collectively, this generated 7.3 billion kilometres of extra travel, the study found.
So said reporter Chelsea Mes at News.com.au yesterday.

According to TravelSmart
40 percent of all car trips are less than two km, and 66 per cent of all car trips are less than five km in Melbourne.
While in Brisbane an
individual makes an average 835 car trips per year as a driver and/or passenger.
By comparison in the United States
Americans average 9.7 trips per day per household or over 3,500 trips each year and in the U.K. it appears that each person makes over 1,000 car trips annually.

Thankfully, on the NSW North Coast, there are many who either 'let their fingers to do the walking' or make most of their trips to the shops on foot.
As a nation we appear to be doing a bit more walking than the two countires we usually compare ourselves with, however there are obviously not enough of us regularly leaving the car behind or the Australian average number of trips would be lower.
Are you doing your bit for the climate?

Update on U.S. numbers here.

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