That cycling is a healthier choice than driving for short distances is not a novel idea. But a new study shows the overall effects if many of us chose the fresh-air route and hopped on a bicycle for short trips. The answers may get you out of the driver’s seat.
Cutting out short auto trips and switching them with bicycle trips would yield major health benefits, according to the study. In the warmest six months of the year, replacing half the car trips with bike trips would save about $3.8 billion per year. Why? Because fewer people would be dying and conditions like obesity and heart disease would take less of a toll.
They think it would save 1,100 lives a year from better air quality and increased physical fitness.
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The study of the largest 11 metropolitan statistical areas in the upper Midwest U.S. began by identifying the air pollution reductions that would result from eliminating short auto trips. A reduction in fine air particles (tied to asthma) and deaths due to heart and lung diseases were a major source of health benefits.
The second step was to look at the health benefits of using a bicycle on those short trips during nice weather. Commuting to work on a bike (if possible) would lead to huge benefits that could help stem the obesity epidemic and reduce the impact of type 2 diabetes overall.
While it is unrealistic to expect to eliminate all short auto trips, what is true is that cycling as transportation is gaining popularity in the U.S. In some cities in Northern Europe, 50% of short trips are done on a bike. Many American cities, like New York and Chicago, have devoted big resources to making cycling easier.
“Part of this is a call for making our biking infrastructure safer. If there are so many health benefits out there, we ought to try to redesign our cities to achieve them without putting new riders at risk,” one of the researchers, Jonathan Patz, says.
Anytime you can substitute physical activity for sedentary behavior, it will translate to a healthier body. Since it’s hard to get to the gym on a regular basis, working fitness into a daily routine seems the optimal way to go.
Sources:
Grabow, M., et al., “Air Quality and Exercise-Related
Health Benefits from Reduced Car Travel in the
Midwestern United States,” Environmental Health
Perspectives, published online Nov. 2, 2011.
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