First of all it is good for your body as riding a bike offers many health benefits. Here are just a few:
Cycling
- increases the fitness of your heart
- increases your strength
- increases your balance and flexibility
- increases your endurance and stamina
- increases the calories that your body burns
Cycling can be done by people of all ages, from childhood up even through the adult years when achy joints don't allow for more stressful exercise like jogging. It is also a much better exercise than is jogging. I have yet to hear of someone who after having ridden his bike had a heart attack. However, I have encountered more than one case where joggers, returning to their cars after having gone for a run in a Park, suffered a major cardiac arrest. In a number of cases those were, though in their forties, fitness instructors for the military and the police.
Secondly it is good for your state of mind
Riding a bike is proven to be a stress releaser. Regardless of if you are riding purely for pleasure or for a specific purpose, such as going to the shops or to school or to work, you will arrive at your destination feeling relaxed, energized and happier about the world and yourself. Unless you have ridden in the traffic in London or New York, I am sure. Cycle road range is known too.
Plus, being out on your bike is just flat-out fun. The more time you spend on two wheels, the harder it is to really take yourself too seriously. The kid comes out again, Ye haw!
Thirdly it is good for your community
Being out on your bike is good for the people around you as well. You are able to go the places you want to go and yet you put one less car on the road.
You do not bring with you the noise that a car generates and are actually able to interaction with people as you move. One of the reason that I do recommend cycling also for the likes of police officers and park and countryside rangers.
From my bike I can wave to a neighbor, say hi to a kid, smell someone’s dinner cooking and be a warm and friendly human presence on the streets, and as a community officer approachable by those around me.
Also, and this is quite a significant fact: operating a bicycling does not harm the environment. There is no polluting exhaust released, no oil or gas consumed; the energy and materials used to make one automobile could be used to create a hundred bicycles.
Another factor if simply convenience
There is an undeniable convenience factor you’ll discover when riding a bike. You do not need to worry about parking spaces and whether you have to pay for them or not. Traffic jams also are irrelevant to you as a cyclist, as are congestion charges, as the one introduced in London.
Cars, certainly, I admit, make better time on longer trips but you will find that for many shorter trips, or trips through heavy traffic, that you can travel just as fast or even faster by bike than you can in the car. I have been there and done it. In fact, I must admit that I do not own a motor car or any other motor vehicle so I am biased, maybe, but I have whizzed past long line of cars again and again and have arrived at the destination much earlier than did they.
Another reason to bike is for your wallet
It costs at least between 30 and 40 pence per mile to operate a car, depending on the vehicle. This is based on expenses like gas, oil, maintenance, etc., that go up when you drive more. And with the current increase in the price of oil this cost is likely to rise even further over time. This figure does not include the other, more hidden, costs of vehicle ownership such as road tax, MOT and insurance; let's not even talk of depreciation of the vehicle itself. These factors make the actual per mile cost to operate a car much higher.
When you ride your bike, you are doing a lot of good things, many of which are for the benefit of others, the environment, etc. But in the end, the one who benefits the most is you, through better health, peace of mind, increased confidence and self-reliance.
So get that bike out and get cycling. You may not, on your own, save the world in the process, but you may just be having lots of fun trying!
© Michael Smith (Veshengro), March 2008
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