<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>radu_floricica</author><text>This is a very naïve view. It&amp;#x27;s technically correct (the best kind of correct?) but it&amp;#x27;s also missing the point by a wide margin - the &amp;quot;spherical, frictionless cow in a void&amp;quot; missing the point.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re correct in the sense that trains and bicycles are, true, more energy efficient. I&amp;#x27;m not even looking for numbers here, because it&amp;#x27;s irrelevant.&lt;p&gt;What you&amp;#x27;re missing is that real humans occasionally need to move a mattress. Or just bring home groceries once a week. Or have kids. Or that a full quarter of the population are seniors. Or that quite a few people live in places with hard winters. You think it&amp;#x27;s a coincidence that Netherlands is the country of bicycle riders? Gulfstream :) They hardly have any snow or ice - just walk around in the street there, and it&amp;#x27;ll hit you that most buildings have windows that take up half the wall. Cold is just not a concern there, the way it would be in a lot of other places.&lt;p&gt;If you compare an EV with a train on an energy efficiency PoV, yes, the train may be twice as efficient (or less?). But an EV covers 80% of energy requirements (it&amp;#x27;s CLEAN, cheaper than gas, less carbon generating, less likely to subsidize oil-based dictatorships), while also not having you haul a toddler, an infant and 3 bags of groceries through snow from the train station half a mile away.</text><parent_chain><item><author>occz</author><text>And in turn, trains are far more energy efficient than all kinds of cars. Trains are subsequently beaten by both electric and non-electric bicycles, which are the most energy efficient mode of transport currently known to man.&lt;p&gt;While phasing out ICEs entirely is clearly an urgent necessity, it would be wise to invest in a world where we move more towards these superior modes of transportation, instead of going for EVs, which are a slight improvement, but not at all as big of an improvement as we could realize with trains and bicycles.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Electric vehicles are way more energy-efficient than internal combustion</title><url>https://www.motortrend.com/news/evs-more-efficient-than-internal-combustion-engines/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>choeger</author><text>But energy efficiency is not the single goal and it shouldn&amp;#x27;t become it. The most energy efficient mode if transportation is to stay put. The most energy efficient form of living is a bunk in some barracks and so on and so forth. And some point we have to acknowledge that life is spending energy so why not on individual travel?</text><parent_chain><item><author>occz</author><text>And in turn, trains are far more energy efficient than all kinds of cars. Trains are subsequently beaten by both electric and non-electric bicycles, which are the most energy efficient mode of transport currently known to man.&lt;p&gt;While phasing out ICEs entirely is clearly an urgent necessity, it would be wise to invest in a world where we move more towards these superior modes of transportation, instead of going for EVs, which are a slight improvement, but not at all as big of an improvement as we could realize with trains and bicycles.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Electric vehicles are way more energy-efficient than internal combustion</title><url>https://www.motortrend.com/news/evs-more-efficient-than-internal-combustion-engines/</url></story>