I’m so proud of my husband. Two years ago, around Earth Day 2008, he bought a bike and started biking to work. We live about 7 miles from his job and at first, the ride was challenging, but now it’s much easier for him. When the weather is good, he bikes 4 days/week (he works from home on one). In the winter, he typically bikes 1-3 days and takes the bus on the others. He lost about 10 lbs when he started biking to work and has kept it off since.
REI has a great website with helpful and fun information about biking. They have a tool where you can enter how many miles you bike and find out how many calories your burned, how much money you saved, and how many pounds of CO2 emissions you kept out of the air. For my husband’s 14-mile round trip commute, he burns 658 calories, saves $3.08, and prevents 13 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. REI’s site also provides a link to an iPhone app that can track these things for you as you bike.
Here are some other fun facts about biking, from the Trek Bicycle Corp:
- The average person loses 13 pounds their first year of commuting by bike.
- 40% of all car trips in the U.S. are made within 2 miles of home.
- 60% of the pollution created by autos happens in the first few minutes of operation, before pollution control devices can work effectively.
- Just 3 hours of biking per week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%.
- The U.S. could save 462 million gallons of gas a year by boosting bicycle trips just half a percentage point: from 1% to 1.5% of all trips.
