Live Longer, Save Money, Ride a Bicycle
No need to do this if you use your bicyle instead of a car.
When Dad died, he left his car behind. Nobody owns the Corolla. It sits in Mum’s garage. We still call it, “Dad’s Car.”
I normally get around on a bicycle, but lately, I’ve been using the Corolla. I drive Mum around from time to time, but mainly I use it to cart camera equipment around to film shoots and go shopping. I’ve been sitting at my computer 7 days straight marking assignments (from 8am to 8pm), snacking into the wee hours of the night and driving a car. Driving, sitting and snacking aren’t good. Cars are not only unhealthy for the environment, but for our bodies. I tend to nip out and buy more stuff when there’s car. In a car – I can hoik more stuff around. It’s easy to go buy a bar of chocolate or shop for bigger things when there’s a car boot instead of a back pack.
Dad’s car costs $50 per week for petrol, about $1,500 per year in depreciation and around $600 or so for licensing and insurance. Add another $2-400 for tyres, service etc. and you’re talking $5,000 pa. The car has also led to many recent wars, the current environmental emergency, health problems, road rage and accidents. It’s not the innocent machine we see driving across natural rivines in ads. The car destroys those ravines.
I have a lovely bicycle (a Giant CRX-1). It cost about $1,250. It’s my main mode of transport (when there’s no car). In Perth, there are bicycle and walk paths everywhere. Perth might just be the most bicycle-friendly city in Australia. I can ride for 50Km without hitting a road. My bike costs me $60 per annum to run and service. Maybe an additional $150 every year if I want treat mysef to new night-lights, tyres, helmet and panniers. I give my heart and muscles good a run just by getting on it. And I suck in a lot of air. One day I rode for 4 hours and lost 2-3kgs. I won’t even bore you with the research behind cycling. “Is it safer?” I hear you ask . . .
Yes! MUCH safer.
People in cars account for close to half of all transportation fatalities in the US. Cyclists represent less than 2 percent. Probably a lot less if you use cycle paths like me.
What about pollution?
It’s true that some of those bike paths run along side freeways and originally I was worried about fine particle pollution. But when I read this Dutch study, pointing out that the people driving the cars are breathing in up to four times more pollutants, I was less worried. Still worried though.
There are negatives. I dress down for riding. I look a bit windswept when I get somewhere and sometimes I’m sweaty (mostly in winter usually when I’m wearing layers of clothing). But I’m a lot richer and I’ll live many years longer than a car driver. Here’s some good detail (research at bottom of BLOG).
