Why ride a bicycle to work, or anywhere, instead of driving? Math.
• A new car costs about $20,000. A new bicycle costs about $450.
• When a car breaks down it can require lengthy, costly repairs, often exceeding the value of the car. When a bicycle breaks down, the cost is rarely beyond that of a new tire or chain, and folks at the local bike shop will often fix it for the cost of the materials.
• A car requires insurance, registration, and a valid California license. A bicycle requires the sense of balance that god gives eight-year-olds.
• Car lanes are 12 feet wide. Bike lanes are about 2 feet wide. Consider the savings in asphalt alone.
• Gas prices are about $3.09 a gallon, while water bottles average approximately $1.07 with tax. And many people in cars drink bottled water anyway.
• Bicycling releases adrenalin, endorphins, and hormones, resulting in a sense of energy and well-being. Driving releases carbon monoxide and pollutants, resulting in greenhouse gases and skin cancer.
• Road-rage abounds. Bike-lane rage is as yet unheard of.
• Cars require airbags, safety restraints, seatbelts, anti-lock brakes, and dozens of other safety mechanisms. Bicyclists are required to wear a helmet if they are under the age of 12.
• Driving too much results in eye-strain, backaches, migraines, weight gain, and highway hypnosis. Bicycling too much results in sexy calves and thigh muscles.
• To date, no one has ever been involved in a deadly alcohol-related hit-and-run on a bicycle.
• Drivers who fall asleep at the wheel result in 20,000 accidents a year. Bicyclists who fall asleep simply fall down.
• Most people drive to work and bicycle on weekends to relax. In fact, some people drive elsewhere on vacation in order to bicycle there. This seems like an unnecessary extra step.
• Between traffic, circuitous routes, one-way streets, etc., it takes about 15 minutes to get from one end of San Luis Obispo to the other by car. On a bicycle it takes about 20. Which is about the minimum amount of aerobic exercise you’re supposed to do anyway.
• In fact, the Surgeon General has determined that 20 minutes of exercise 3-4 times a week increases life expectancy up to 30 years. So then, with this 60 hours of exercise a year spread over those 30 extra years, you lose only 75 days to that exercise, leaving you 10,883 you wouldn’t have otherwise.
• Finally, bicycling takes less real “energy” than any other form of transportation. From walking to air travel, in terms of caloric cost (a calorie literally being a unit of energy-producing potential equal to the amount of heat released upon oxidation, whether that fuel be in the body or from gasoline, electricity, or any other fuel source), bicycling is the absolute most efficient means of transport that has ever been invented. Anywhere. Ever.

So hurrah for bicycles. And share the road. We bicyclists take up 1/6 as much of it as you do.

Alexander won first place in the Essay Contest answering the question: “Why Bike to Work?” sponsored by the SLO County Bicycle Coalition. The other winning essays are posted at www.slobikelane.org.


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