New study puts some numbers on it...
#2
The Drive Side is Within
$3.8 Bn.
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The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley
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genec
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The new study, he says, should provide another motivation for making cities more bike friendly, with better parking, bike racks on buses and trains, and more bike lanes and especially separate bike paths.
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#5
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The report calculated that these measures would save an estimated $7 billion, including 1,100 lives each year from improved air quality and increased physical fitness.
#8
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It's also important to note that almost nothing is without risk and so it is important to place that risk in context and consider the benefits against the risk.
Taking the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator isn't without it's risks either, but I'd doubt any doctor would caution their patients about these risks when recommending to take the stairs instead of an elevator to improve their patients health
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And everything in life has "risks". Walking down the street on the sidewalk has a risk of death that is close to on par with cycling. Exercise of any kind has a small risk of death from heart attack, overheating, dehydration, etc. Constantly worrying about risks without weighing them against the benefits (both in terms of health and general psychological well-being/enjoyment) is silly. We don't live our lives in empty rubber rooms, so we have to accept the possibility of death or injury. Living means taking risks.
#10
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Low energy vehicle use reduces numerous health risks to other members of the public besides the operator. When we read about a bicyclist who turned left in front of an oncoming car and was killed by his mistake, we automatically think about the vulnerability of the cyclist, but we rarely think how the fatality count might have been substantially greater if he had made the same mistake in a truck, and that a number of those fatalities would have been innocent people.
#11
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I can recall a number of studies that show cycling offer benefit to risk ratios of 5, 10, even 20 to 1 odds, but my favorite was done on Bacelonas public bike share program that revealed a benefit ratio of 77 to 1.
This study took into account the better air quality provided by transport by bicycle as well as the lack of collaterall damage when bicycles crash, but mostly it included responsibly behaved adult cyclists running errands on bikes rather than including all cyclists thereby eliminating the majority of cyclists who crash and are not neccesarily representative of a responsible cyclist
This study took into account the better air quality provided by transport by bicycle as well as the lack of collaterall damage when bicycles crash, but mostly it included responsibly behaved adult cyclists running errands on bikes rather than including all cyclists thereby eliminating the majority of cyclists who crash and are not neccesarily representative of a responsible cyclist
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I'll have to dig up the link, but there was a study done in Boston that concluded that the particulates in the air, primarily from motor vehicles, was causing IQ damage to children that was comparable to that caused by lead paint chips.
So, if we get folks out of their cars, we'll get a smarter society. The problem is, most of the people who seem to be able to understand the value of minimizing motor vehicle use are already smarter than average.
So, if we get folks out of their cars, we'll get a smarter society. The problem is, most of the people who seem to be able to understand the value of minimizing motor vehicle use are already smarter than average.
#14
Cycle Year Round
But I guess you could consider using a wheel chair great exercise. But then again, either running or wheel chairing across an intersection is greater risk than cycling where I live.
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Knee-friendly aerobic exercise might include spinning classes, indoor trainer, elliptical machine, Nordic Trac, ... None of these expose you to the hazards of bicycle riding on the road.
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#19
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Left on their own, usually most people will exercise to their own comfort level, but generally it is not to the level of what urban commuting or heavy cargo carrying dictates. Like comparing working at one's own pace at the workplace versus what the employer/customers/clients want.
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So the authors say that this study should motivate cities to install a pro-biking infrastructure. Is is a general observation that, assuming that the infrastructure is installed, that folks are actually motivated to cycle?
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-G
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That's a dangerous question in this forum. It may be that infrastructure is a dangerous delusion foisted on inferior cyclists by a motorist conspiracy (or something like that) But I think it's a pretty good bet that at the very least, occasional cyclists will be motivated to cycle more. I'm also pretty sure that frequently seeing people cycling for transportation does encourage new cyclists, so I guess that part would depend on where the infrastructure was.
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