Metrics — Physical Internet®

Energy per Passenger-Mile

Watt-hours to move one person one mile. Lower is better.

Bike

JPods

Walking

116

Motorcycle

545

Commuter rail

881

Car

1,032

Bus

1,245

Taxi

4,204

Wh per passenger-mile. Source: US DOE Transportation Energy Data Book (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), ch. 2; bikes: CycleVolta; JPods: design figure.

188×

Freight rail moves a ton of goods 470 miles on one gallon of fuel (Warren Buffett, BNSF). A 200-pound person in a 25-mpg car moves a tenth of a ton 25 miles per gallon: 2.5 ton-miles. 470 ÷ 2.5 = 188.

Packet size is the waste

Most of the energy a car burns moves the car, not the person. The Parasitic Energy Ratio compares the mass moved and the stops made per passenger. The smaller the packet, the less energy is wasted.

Parasitic Energy Ratio

Car

144.4

Bus

129.7

Light rail

181.4

Bike

1.1

JPods

2.8

Stops × vehicle mass per passenger ÷ 90 kg. Lower is better. Method and inputs: library.jpods.com/metrics.

The Cost of Traffic

$2.76 trillion a year. 69% of it in cities.

Cost	$ per year	Source
Crashes	$871B	NHTSA, via PBS
Oil	$756B	EIA
Land for roads and parking	$723B	Land Use, at $1 per sq ft
Congestion	$305B	CityLab
Car damage from bad roads	$109B	CNBC
Total	$2.76T

95%

of the time a car
sits parked (MIT Senseable)

85%

of car spending leaves
the local economy (Speck)

$12,182

a year to own
and drive a car (AAA)

Tax Revenue per Acre

Walkable places pay the city's bills. Parking lots don't.

Measure a store by what it pays per acre of city land, not per store, and the ranking flips. The big box with its parking lot uses the most land and returns the least.

A big-box store on 34 acres paying $6.5k property tax per acre, against a six-story downtown building on 0.2 acres paying $634k per acre — Asheville, NC. A big-box store on 34 acres pays $6.5k in property tax per acre, with 0 residents and 6 jobs per acre. A six-story downtown building on 0.2 acres pays $634k per acre, with 90 residents and 74 jobs per acre. Analysis: Urban3.

A taco shop on 0.12 acres producing $510,000 tax revenue per acre, against a Target on 15.5 acres producing $144,500 per acre — Edmond, OK. A taco shop on 0.12 acres: $510,000 tax revenue and 250 jobs per acre. A Target on 15.5 acres: $144,500 and 6.4 jobs per acre.

Brainerd, Minnesota: a row of small old shops valued at $1,136,500 beside a fast-food parcel valued at $803,200 — Brainerd, MN. A row of small old shops called “blighted” is valued at $1,136,500; the fast-food parcel beside it at $803,200.Image: Not Just Bikes

Walkability Pays

1.2%

of land in the 35 largest US cities
is walkable (WEF)

20%

of GDP comes from
that 1.2%

35–45%

rent and price premium
for walkable places (CNU 2023)

$500–$3,000

home value per
Walk Score point (Climate Reality)

In Arlington, Virginia, 10% of the land now produces more than half of the county's tax revenue, up from 20% (World Economic Forum). The demand for walkable places is far larger than the supply. The Physical Internet® makes more of them: every station is a new walkable center.

The Cost in Lives

40,100

killed on US roads
in 2017

11,200

serious injuries per million
on roads (DOT)

3.7

per million under amusement-ride
standards (ASTM F24)

Per 100 million kilometers walked (2016–2018), 11.2 Americans are killed, against 1.1 in the Netherlands and 1.7 in Denmark. Per 100 million kilometers biked, 6.0 against 0.9 and 0.9. The difference is road policy. See how Sweden and Denmark changed it on the home page.

Fatality rates: Ralph Buehler & John Pucher, Transport Reviews 41(1), 2021. Serious injuries: Statista/DOT; ASTM F24 comparison: library.jpods.com/metrics.

Measure what moving a person costs.