Did you know that May is Bicycle Month? And that the second week of May is Bicycle Week? That makes today the first day of Bike Week! Don’t worry, if you drove your car into work today you have 6 more days to celebrate this national movement (and you don’t just have to bike to work. Bike to the store, to the bank…you get the picture).
Bicycle Week originated in Europe in 1923 and advocates bicycling as a mode of transportation. It only recently started being observed in the U.S.. Bike Week serves two purposes: to promote exercise in a fun way and to benefit the environment.
Biking is exercise. And it’s fun! We know that because we, our parents, our grandparents and so on, loved to hop on two wheels and zip around the neighborhood all summer long. It by no means felt like exercise, even though we were burning mad calories. Ok, so we’re older now and our adolescent energy is gone, but who can argue that the wind in our hair and face still feels darn good?
Biking is great for the environment. Think about it:
- No pollutants released, like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide
- No oil or gas consumed
- The energy and materials used to make a bike is a mere fraction of what it takes to build a car
- No parking fees, no tolls to pay
- No traffic jams
- No gas tanks to fill!
Give it a try, even for a day. You just might grow to prefer biking as your main mode of getting from here to there. Plus, the more people that participate in Bike Week, the more cities are likely to notice. In some cities where the number of bike riders grew substantially after Bicycle Week, the demand for smoother bike lanes and better bicycle laws were met by city planners.
–How often do you use a bicycle?