So why bike or walk?
Most of us know it is wonderful, but have you tried listing all the reasons -- all the wins you get from bicycling and walking? To convince friends and others here are some of the many reasons why everyone should bike and walk more and stop driving (in no particular order):
Say “Hi!” to more people — meeting your neighbors improves our community.
Be in touch with nature.
Improve physical health and live longer.
Improve mental health.
Exercise endorphins are wonderful!
Enjoy food more. Ride to eat, eat to ride.
Increase safety. The more who bike, the safer it is for everyone!
Increase equity. Everyone benefits from bicycling, from the poorest to the richest regardless of race, religion, or creed.
Increase happiness - it’s fun!
Reduce road congestion.
Reduce road repair.
Reduce space needed for roads. Roads consume huge amounts of resources to build and maintain.
Reduce space needed for parking. Did you know a single parking space in Silicon Valley costs $50,000 to $100,000 each? And we have about 3 of them per car?
Reduce your taxes.
Reduce other people’s taxes.
Reduce insurance costs.
Reduce transportation purchase costs.
Reduce transportation maintenance costs.
Reduce transportation fuel costs.
Reduce registration & licensing costs.
Reduce obesity & waistlines.
Reduce health care costs.
Reduce health insurance costs.
Reduce people dying from motor vehicle crashes. In the US motor vehicles kill about 40,000 people every year.
Reduce animals (including birds and amphibians) dying from motor vehicle hits. In the US millions of animals are killed every year.
Reduce property damage from motor vehicle crashes.
Reduce air pollution from burning fuel.
Reduce particulate pollution from brake and tire wear.
Reduce climate change from fossil fuel C02 and fossil methane. In California, transportation accounts for about 50% of greenhouse gases.
Reduce noise pollution.
Reduce waste & trash. The metal in cars is recyclable but they also include a lot of plastic that is trash.
Reduce resource consumption. Cars, even electric ones, take tons of resources compared to bikes. Currently humans worldwide are consuming about twice the amount of resources that our earth can sustainably supply each year. Our resources are not unlimited. What happens when Earth’s resource supply runs out?
Save your money. Over the course of a lifetime in the US, you can save $1 million by biking and walking instead of owning a car.
Save our world.
Get you where you need to go. If you bike instead of pay for a gym, you save on your gym membership and get to your destination using your exercise energy to move you someplace useful rather than go nowhere in a gym.
Donate your savings to your local bike or walk coalition to get even more bang for your buck. Like bicycling and walking, these coalitions are a very efficient way to reduce climate change and make our community, and world, safer for everyone. Particularly for our kids.