Cycling is good
for your health and your pocket and the greater the number of people
who give up their cars, or decide not to own one in the first place,
the safer will be roads for cycling on and the greater the focus on
providing safe routes for cyclists. Also, public transport will become
more economically viable and general efficiency will increase for those
who must use vehicles for their business activities. Holiday and leisure
facilities will become more pleasureable without the environment being
spoilt by the presense of large numbers of cars. Traffic congestion
will also be reduced.
Cycling is good
for your health
Most able bodied people should be able to use a bike for most journeys
under 5 miles (Most car journeys are under 5 miles). Among the likely
benefits of regular cycling are:
- The chances of
getting a heart disease are likely to be cut by a half
- The likelihood
of getting strokes, diabetes and some kinds of cancer will be reduced
- Improvement in
general health
- Reduces the cost
of travel.In the UK alone 72% of all journeys are made by car of which
59% are less than 5 miles in length. These shorter journeys are the
most polluting ones and could be very easily shifted to cycling, public
transport or walking.
- Bicycles occupy
less road space than motor vehicles per person and increase the efficiency
of existing roads, while reducing wear and tear of road surfaces.
- Bicycles offer
door to door mobility and you are not constrained by public transport
timetables.
- Bicycles can be
obtained at reasonable cost, are reliable and economical to operate
- Cycling is a low-cost
alternative transport option for people below driving age or without
a car, especially in outer metropolitan areas and rural towns.
- Cycling is much
faster than walking and, in congested urban areas, is as quick (or quicker)
for short journeys as other forms of transport.
- About 16 bicycles
can be parked in the space required for one car. Bicycles occupy less
road space than motor vehicles per person and increase the efficiency
of existing roads, while reducing wear and tear of road surfaces.
- Increased bicycle
use by school children would result in savings in school transportation
.
- Reduces stress
and helps reduce weight. The prevalence of obesity in England has tripled
over the last 20 years and continues to rise. Most adults in England
are now overweight, and one in five is obese. Nearly two thirds of men
and over half of women in England are now overweight or obese. And the
problem here is increasing faster than in most other European countries.
If this prevalence continues to rise at the current rate, more than
one in four adults will be obese by 2010. This would significantly increase
the incidence of associated diseases, such as coronary heart disease,
and would cost the economy over £3.5 billion a year by that date.
Less than 50% of Americans get any real exercise, and less than 10%
get enough.
- Surprisingly a
person in a car will breath in more exhaust pollutants than someone
riding a bike in the same situation
- Can increase alertness
and reduce tiredness at work
- Cyclists are a
considerable boon to other road users but motorists rarely think about
how little space cyclists take up on the road as opposed to a car. The
motorist should regard the cyclist as a friend and yet often adopts
an antagonistic attitude towards the cyclist.
Cycling can help
make you feel good about yourself
Consider
for a moment how much better you would feel arriving at the office after
an invigorating morning bike ride, rather than a rushed and busy trip
through morning traffic. Or how about at the end of your busy work day,
letting all of your stress melt away as you take a leisurely ride home
on your bicycle, avoiding the even more stressful rush hour traffic?
It is likely that your trip home wouldn't take much more time than traveling
by car. Also consider how much time you'll save by not having to spend
so much of it at the health club. You may even decide to save some money
and not sign up for membership during your cycling months.
If the money saving aspect is not all that important to you, consider
the environmental benefits. Bicycling is very environmentally friendly,
and you'd be making a measurable contribution to its preservation. It
takes a great deal less of our planet's resources to build a bicycle
than it does to build and maintain a car. Cyclists do not pollute the
air with toxic gases or leak dangerous oil and antifreeze into the earth.
They also do not contribute to the growing problem of grid lock and
noise pollution our nation is now facing. And just think how much friendlier
people would be to one another if they were all on bicycles. Think of
how much less road rage there would be!
Cycling does not
require so much exertion as jogging and can be carried on well into
old age.
This may be too
obvious to mention, but cycling will save you a lot of money.
Cycling can increase
efficiency and profits for employers
Employers should consider the benefits they can gain by promoting bicycling,
too. Employees over-all health improves, the number of sick days that
your company pays for are likely to decline (and if your employees do
get sick, they'll recover faster). Medical costs decrease, your employees
feel better (physically and emotionally), and they'll be more effective
and happier at their jobs.
Obesity accounts for about 18 million days of sickness absence each
year and 30,000 premature deaths.. On average, each person whose death
could be attributed to obesity lost nine years of life. Treating obesity
costs the NHS at least £½ billion a year. The wider costs
to the economy in lower productivity and lost output could be a further
£2 billion each year.
