May Is National Bike Month! 3 Reasons To Celebrate

May is National Bike Month in the United States, including Bike to Work Week from May 16-20 and Bike to Work Day on Friday, May 20. In cities and towns all over the country, car lovers will ditch their four-wheeled gas guzzlers for two-wheeled transportation machines of a cleaner variety.

To celebrate, we’ll be posting a weekly article about cool bikes, benefits of biking, biking tips, and pro-bike legislation!

If you’d like to host a Bike Month event in your area, be sure to check out the League of American Bicyclists’ Bike Month Guide to learn how to get started and how to promote your event.

For now, let’s kick things off with three excellent reasons to dust off your bike this month:

1. It’s better for the environment. Autos are the single largest source of U.S. air pollution. More bicycles on the road means a smaller carbon footprint. Most car trips occur only 2 miles from the driver’s point of origin. Unfortunately, short trips are up to three times more polluting per mile than long trips. When bicycling is substituted for short auto trips, 3.6 pounds of pollutants per mile are not emitted into the atmosphere.

2. It’s better for your health. Over 66 percent of the adult US population is overweight and 32 percent of the US is obese, costing our nation $68 billion in health care and personal costs annually. Statistics on the lack of physical activity among children are also alarming. Most children are driven to school in cars or buses, and one child out of every four is overweight. Medical research has well established the fact that a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate physical activity three days a week can reduce incidents of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension and improve mental health and cardiovascular fitness.

Bicycle commuting is a great way to squeeze regular exercise into a hectic schedule. Commuting time can be used to stay in shape instead of sitting frustrated in traffic.

3. It’s better for your wallet. If the real taxpayer subsidy of autos were reflected in fuel taxes, a gallon of gasoline might cost as much as $9.00. That’s because other taxes cover the costs of road building, maintenance, parking space, police services and losses from accidents, pollution and congestion. If more commuters bicycled, these costs would go down. Bicycle commuting saves on parking fees, parking tickets, fuel costs, auto maintenance costs and transit fares. In some large urban areas, it is possible to save over $200 per month on parking alone.

Why do you bike? Share your cycling stories in a comment!

Also Check Out:
What To Pack For Bike Commuting
Gas Prices Still Too High? Ride A Bike!
20 Steps To A More Natural Life
6 Tips to Go Car Free

Image Credit: Flickr – vinzcha

Short
trips are up to three times more polluting
per mile than long trips. When
bicycling is substituted for short auto
trips, 3.6 pounds of pollutants per mile
are not emitted into the atmosphere.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Abbe A.

3:15AM PDT on Jul 5, 2011

Thanks. Just dusting off my own.

July 5
send a green star

Harry L.

12:45PM PDT on Jun 9, 2011

riding a bicycle to work and back is a real simple and great way to cut down on global warming!!!!

June 9
send a green star

Past Member .

2:24PM PDT on May 22, 2011

I bike mainly because I enjoy it!

May 22
send a green star

Hege T.

7:35AM PDT on May 21, 2011

thanks

May 21
send a green star

5:25AM PDT on May 18, 2011

May 18
send a green star

Jo A.

7:03PM PDT on May 13, 2011

Yes! Let's ride the bike more often. Riding the bike slows you down to enjoy the scenery too! Great work out for your body and mind! You can do a lot of thinking while riding ...you can meditate ... pray ... plan ... memorize stuff ... reflect on the day ... generate creaditve ideas ...so much to go through your mind ...

May 13
send a green star

Celine V.

12:49PM PDT on May 13, 2011

Thanks for posting!

Tiffany D.

9:25AM PDT on May 10, 2011

Allow me to mention the most AWESOME bike in the world--the Bowden Spacelander. A bike so cool that I could never afford one. Ever. But it would make my bike rides to work SOOOOO much more stylish :)