HELLO AGAIN EVERYONE, MY NAME IS EJAY FARRALES AS MOST OF YOU KNOW.
Intro remarks:
As you guys know, last time I was up here I talked a little bit about bike culture in the beautiful city of SF and my hometown. However, today I will be talking about more of the benefits of cycling. There are numerous benefits of the cycling, but the 3 that stood out to me and the 3 that I will talk about today are the health benefits of cycling, environmental benefits of cycling as well as the economic benefits of cycling.
So with that said, here we go.
Number 1, health benefits, as you guys may know and as some people mentioned in their last presentations, cycling is good for the health.Cycling is easy on the joints, cycling builds muscle and can help you maintain a healthy weight. By keeping you physically fit, cycling already reduces your chances for diseases, even mental health diseases such as anxiety and depression. In addition that it can improve your heart and balance/coordination. Here below we have a little graphic on some of the health benefits I discussed.
Beyond health, cycling has other benefits to you, besides for your body and muscles. That leads me into my next point which are some of the environmental benefits of cycling
So environmental benefits of cycling. How does bicycle commuting contribute to a clean environment? number 1 cycling uses know fuel, obviously. number 2 bicycles take less energy than cars, in general and even to make. number 3 cycling does has any toxic parts, such as batteries, fuses, engines, motors, etc. With that said, lets take a look at this study by bike org. So for a 10 mile commute 5 days a week for a year, these are the amount of pollution being emitted by cars. so for a small car .7 Tons of CO2, for midsize car 1.3 Tons and for a SUV 1.9 Tons. And those are just for single cars. imagine multiplying these numbers by the amount of cars in the city, let alone the world. That’s TONS of emissions being let out. & the crazy thing is that is just from gas alone. imagine the pollution it takes to make a car that a whole other monster. So go out and get a bike and save the world.
So IF those aren’t enough benefits of riding a bike, here is another one.which brings me to my last topic Economic Benefits of cycling.
So how does cycling better the economy?
1) people who ride bikes buy bikes, so automatically that is helping out people of the bike shops manufactures for bike parts such as helmets, seats, handles, etc. 2) People who ride bikes buy other things too. put local business in a better spot to have more foot traffic and consumption. talk about SF Valencia statistics. 3)People who ride bikes on vacation buy food, have travel costs, and pay for lodging. Increasing bike culture and infrastructure can lead to tourism which can lead to revenue within a city. in Québec, Canada has seen a measurable impact of bicycle tourism on its economy. cycling led to a Province-wide spending by bicyclists totaled $166 million, Generated sales over $181 million, supporting 2,800 jobs and generating $17.2 million in tax revenues for Québec and $13.6 million in national taxes.
So you might be wondering, how might this be able to happen?
- With the money saved from lower travel costs, people who ride bikes have more of their money to spend on local businesses.
- Developers,cities, and individuals can save money on parking costs by providing space-efficient,low-cost bike parking instead of expensive car parking.
In short, all that spending means jobs–and tax revenue– for communities. But people who ride bikes also save money.
With that said, It’s pretty safe to say, that we all need to start riding a bike, to not only benefit our health, but to benefit the environment as well as the economy.
SO GO OUT AND START RIDING A BIKE TODAY!