National Bike Month is Here

National Bike Month is here and there are a lot of reasons to participate!

It’s that time of year again. The sun is shining more and more (in most places in the Northern Hemisphere), the birds are chirping, and you can see more and more people on the streets riding their bikes. If you aren’t already doing so, maybe it’s time to join them!

The League of American Bicyclists recently released a good list of reasons why now is a great time to get on a bike and it is such a good one I am reposting it below.

But before that, let me just add a little bit of my own on why I think you should get on your bike now.

There is hardly any activity as pleasant as riding your bike. With the wind in your hair, gliding past cars in a traffic jam, enjoying the fresh air, you will likely think “Why don’t I ride my bike more often?” once you get on it.

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride,” as John F. Kennedy said.

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia,” H.G. Wells said.

Other than the pure pleasure of riding a bicycle, it will help your health tremendously. Bicycling is light on the joints but can still provide you with the moderate or intense exercise you need to stay fit and healthy.

Additionally, if you are green-minded (which I imagine you are if you are on this blog), there is little you can do that is better than changing out your clunky, heavy, polluting car for a bicycle (at least for some of your trips).

As Bill Strickland wrote, “the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created:  Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.”

Transportation is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, air and water pollution in the world and one of the best solutions to addressing those problems is switching to the bicycle.

Ok, now for the League’s excellent reasons for getting on your bicycle today:

This year National Bike Month could hardly come at a more auspicious moment. Consider the timeliness of enjoying the simple pleasure of a bike ride:

  • Gas prices are inexorably rising toward the three dollar a gallon mark
  • The First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative begs for kids to get back on their bikes and unplug themselves from their myriad electronic devices
  • Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is tearing up the country in support of livability – with bicycling at the core of his message
  • Climate and transportation legislation remains “imminent” (and long overdue) in the United States Congress
  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just launched new recommendations for improving health through transportation policy…totally new territory in Government collaboration
  • Crude oil is spewing uncontrollably into the Gulf creating a bona fide ecological disaster
  • And more and more people are, in fact, getting on their bikes and riding.

Enjoy a bike ride today and tomorrow and everyday!

Images via TeeJe & Bern@t

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