Ride your bike to save the world and improve your life

Everyone remembers their first bike, and learning to ride. This was a major turning point in many adolescent’s lives: Transportation, fun, and freedom. Then late teenage years came and the bicycle went into the back of the shed or garage and we hoped in the driver’s seat of our first car. The down turn of society is caused by choices like this, daily, people reach for the keys to their car instead of their bike helmet; gas pedals instead of pedals. Some of societies greatest problems economic crisis, obesity, shortages of fossil fuels, and extreme levels of pollution, could be solved with something as simple as riding a bike rather than turning over the ignition of a fuel sucking, exhaust blowing car. According to fueleconomy.gov only 14-16 % of the fuel used by a vehicle is used to propel the vehicle forward. A bike uses almost 98 % of its energy input for forward motion.

Increasing the amount we use bikes for transportation would decrease the expenses in every home, and with increased unemployment and inflation everyone could benefit from a little extra savings. Cars are one of the biggest expenses in the average family budget, I say this because your home is an investment after ten years in most cases a home will have increased in value where as a car will be worth almost nothing. Then you have the costly repairs, fuel expenses, parking, speeding tickets, and car washes. Now consider the low maintenance involved in a bicycle, free parking, and you enjoy fueling up (eating larger helpings of foods you already enjoy eating) just to name a few benefits. Even if you were unable to be car free the savings in just supplementing your trips with a bike can have a large impact on your budget. One World Two Wheels created this wonderful application to estimate your budget savings by choosing to go by bike, http://1world2wheels.org/go-by-bike-challenge/. According to the CDC 30 % of the United States population is obese. This makes the United States one of the most obese of the developed nations. The Cost directly associated with obesity was 75 billion dollars just in the year 2003! Heart disease’s top two risk factors are inactivity and obesity. When you add that to the 108 billon in cost associated with heart disease in on year that’s a staggering 183 billion per year and growing. I understand that obesity is not always as simple as someone choosing not to exercise and make good food choices but if everyone were to increase their trips by bike we could not only reduce our personal budgets but the National budget too.

Not only is obesity a national crisis but obesity and inactivity are listed by the CDC as the two leading risk factors in heart disease which kills one in four Americans. Exercise and improving diet can reduce these risks significantly, so by making some of your daily trips with a bike, you will improve your health and decrease your risk of heart disease. It is recommended to exercise one hour per day and this exercise could be your bike commute. Riding a bike is great for increasing activity and unlike running or other high impact exercises, cycling is easy on your joints and can be a productive part of your transportation plan. Even if your commute to work or school is too long to ride you can always park and ride or supplement your bike ride with other means of transit such as public transportation.

Fossil fuels are precious and very limited yet we exploit them for short trips to the store that are almost walking distance away yet most would never think to dust off their old bike and pedal down to that store. Pollution caused by burning these fossil fuels are damaging to our environment. For every mile driven by car one pound of co2 is released into the atmosphere. Even riding your bike for short trips can make a big difference because the majority of the pollution caused by car s occurs during the start-up and initial few minutes of driving. The United States could save 462 million gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from 1% to 1.5% of all trips. By riding your bike you are fueling your trips with fruit and vegetables instead of gasoline or diesel.

Cycling is the simple solution to a lot of complex problems. Cycling will improve individual quality of life and community quality of life through reduction in pollution and national debt. Cycling improves health and reduces the risk of disease. It is each individuals responsibility to ride their bike for themselves, their neighbors, and the future.