Love/Hate Relationship

I used to not love biking. Well, actually, I still don’t love biking. Don’t get me wrong, biking is dope, and I have a blast hopping on the saddle, but people who really love biking are a different breed of people entirely. Unfortunately, I didn’t figure this out until about a week into a trans-continental bike ride (the ride is called Ride for Water, and it is an awesome yearly tradition of raising money for clean water in developing communities). Nonetheless, I finished the 3,300 mile ride, and came away with the conviction that everyone should bike.

Truly, I think everyone who has the ability to own and ride a bike, should. It’s good for you, it’s good for your neighbors, it’s good for the world.

To Health With It

From a personal development point of view, most but not all of the benefits of cycling are coincident with health. Not to downplay that at all, but you probably are already aware of most of those benefits. Regardless, I will outline a little of that here.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends getting 150 minutes of moderate aerobic 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise every week. According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, biking 10-12 mph (a very reasonable speed for even a beginner to maintain) counts as moderate exercise, while the AHA considers anything over 10 mph on a bike as vigorous! Now, I understand not wanting to bike to work every day, but simply riding in and out to work can help you easily crush the AHA goal stated before. In fact, knocking out that 150 minutes every week by commuting shouldn’t be too hard, as the Bureau of Transportation Statistics finding that the median commute is 11 miles, making this goal attainable by only a couple commutes each week. Not only is exercise in general really, really good for you, but cycling is easy on the joints while improving bone density, which gives it a leg up on running and swimming. Finally (on this point), while weight loss is mostly dependent on consuming the appropriate amount of calories, including exercise can help you lose weight or maintain your desired weight.

Alright, we all know exercise is good for muscles and breathing and stuff, but the data on exercise and mental health is also pretty robust. Exercise, particularly aerobic exercise (like cycling), reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, improves mood, and gives one increased energy. One really cool effect of exercise from the meta-analysis cited in the previous sentence is exercise’s effect on sociability. I can imagine this being linked to a reduction in depressive feelings and behavior, but just going for a bike ride will improve your self-esteem and decrease your likelihood of social withdrawal. Overall, the mental effects of aerobic exercise are important for those who struggle with mental health challenges and disorders (there is strong evidence exercising decreases the negative effects of clinical mental disorders) and those who don’t. If you’re anything like me, having structures in place to take care of your mental health is crucial in simply functioning, and integrating an enjoyable physical activity is actually super important in terms of taking care of that ol’ brain. Oh also it increases your libido.

One final point: cycling is FUN! That’s kinda the whole point! Obviously all the benefits to health and wellness are important, but don’t lose sight of the fact that zooming around at 15 miles an hour is a total blast, and exploring new neighborhoods and trails makes life more interesting.

Community Hub

One of the most wonderful things about biking is that you start to learn about the place you live. When you get in a car to go to work or the grocery store or wherever, you seal yourself in a box from origin to destination, not so with biking. When you bike, you are immediately connected to the streets that carry you from place to place. Maybe you take off from your house, wave or say hi to your neighbor in his/her lawn, bike down your block, noticing the change in foliage as you do, you also notice water pooling around a clogged drain from some runaway sprinkler, perhaps you notice an old local business shutting down or a new one opening up. Now, none of this is necessarily your experience, obviously, but the point is that you are far more connected to your neighborhood and city when you use a bike to replace some of your car-transit. This can lead to you taking more care and attention in local politics, participating in (or starting) community gatherings, and being vested in the overall success of those who live around you. I’m not just making this up either; it has been my experience. I’ve become a more understanding, empathetic, and connected person simply by riding my bike instead of driving.

Using a bike instead of a car helps reduce congestion in roadways. Living in a city often means traffic, traffic, and more traffic. One of the major ways we can increase the availability (and longevity) of roadways is by using a bike for commuting or other short distance travel. Also, doing so improves the air quality for you and the people you live around, which improves community health and cognitive performance. Both of these things may seem like effects that don’t benefit you directly, but that’s kind of the point sometimes! When we think about creating a world which is healthy and sustainable, we can’t just consider receiving the benefits, but also must consider the sacrifices we’re willing to make. Sure, you won’t receive the rewards of reduced congestion if you’re on a bike (at least, not until enough people do it), and induced demand could negate some of those congestion benefits, and your air quality may even decrease as you ride a bike on roads mainly populated by automobiles, but if we each choose to commute via bike more, or to opt for the saddle instead of the steering wheel when buying groceries, the effects are realized. Maybe that’s too idealistic or collectivistic, but I think it’s something worth changing for.

Biking is also communal in nature. While there are stretches of riding alone, particularly up or down hills, some of the best conversations I have had have been cruising along on a long bike ride. Cycling with family and friends is a great chance to spend time with your loved ones and grow closer as you push each other to keep going. You can bike in any size group, too, meaning you can spend time with many friends at once (and that makes the post-bike beer all the tastier!). If you don’t have any friends who currently bike (which is unlikely, ask around), there are so many groups set up for people in your exact situation. You can find these through a quick google search, on social media, or just ask down at your local bike shop. People who like bikes want other people to like bikes, so you’ll be in the company of folks who really want to see you succeed and enjoy the sport. Whether it is with family, friends, or folks from your neighborhood, biking can help bring us closer to one another, and I think that’s rad.

The Worldwide Cycle

Sorry to be a downer here, but we are in the midst of an ecological collapse largely driven by an increase in carbon emissions (and habitat destruction). Global temperatures have already risen, and they are expected to continue to rise. These changes are driven by an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the excess of which is due to human activity. This will result in a world uninhabitable not only for animals, but for many humans as well. If we hope to emerge from this, we need to all take action. That means big things must change, like sweeping business reform, new innovations in energy generation, and a redesign of existing and new buildings, but it also means changing individual behavior. One of the main ways we contribute to a warming globe everyday is by driving. In fact, 17% of all emissions are from Light-Duty vehicles like the ones driven by people like us every day!

Biking is, by energy consumption, the best conventional mode of travel that exists. This makes it the best carbon-neutral alternative that exists. A study by Progressive Insurance found that 52% of all car accidents happen within 5 miles of the home. Now, perhaps we become more attentive the farther away from home we get, but that seems a lot less plausible than the idea that we might do 52% of our driving within 5 miles of the home. If all of us in the US converted all sub-five mile driving to biking (5 miles is not very far on a bike), nationwide emissions would drop 8.5%!

I don’t believe everyone will start biking overnight; I’m just interested in showing what a real difference we can all have if we try to make a difference. I’m also not saying that you need to completely abandon your car and replace it with a bike, I’m only recommending that you should do that with some of your travel, and much of your car-travel is replaceable with car-travel. Taking responsibility for the earth and all of its inhabitants, starting with oneself and extending across the world to the remotest of creatures, is one of the great tasks we must take on during our short time here, and bicycling is a part of that journey.

The Finish Line

Phew! Sorry this was such a long article and, at times, dramatic. I just care about this a lot, and I hope you come away from this article caring about it too. I know that not everybody can bike - there are plenty of people with disabilities or those who are financially constrained for whom biking is not on the table - but for those who can, I think its important. No need for the fanciest, lightest bikes or any, ahem, form-fitting gear, all you need is two wheels and some open road. The interconnectivity of roads in the US is thanks to bicyclists, go honor their legacy!