Imagine this: Feeling unwell, you walk into your doctor’s office and, after a checkup, she whips out her pad and writes a prescription ordering you to ride a bike as much as you can. That’s a simplified version of what’s happening in one Brooklyn neighborhood, thanks to a year-old pilot program called Prescribe a Bike.
Designed to improve public health in the gentrifying but still low-income neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Prescribe a Bike gets participants to discover the joys of exercise via cycling.
The premise is simple. When someone seeks care at the Interfaith Medical Center, which runs the program along with the New York City Department of Health, they’re asked if they have any interest in cycling. If so, they’re referred to a doctor who will prescribe a free, one-year membership to Citi Bike, New York's bike-share system, with instructions to ride as often as possible.
“Many of the participants have chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension, but because this program is also geared toward prevention, they don’t have to have an existing condition to get referred,” says Aletha Maybank, the city's deputy health commissioner.
Under the plan, participants receive a helmet, a lesson on the basics of city riding, and an orientation to Citi Bike, as well as contacts for community bike rides in the neighborhood so they can ride with others.
Currently, the program targets those who need it most: the underserved. Maybank notes that, so far, bike-share stations haven't generally appeared in lower-income neighborhoods. “They can be a sign of gentrification for people in these places,” she says. “They don’t think those bikes are for them. They think they’re for people who are coming in to push them out of their neighborhood. We wanted to change that narrative.”
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In its inaugural year, Prescribe a Bike issued 84 memberships that accounted for about 2,100 Citi Bike trips. Though there's no hard data on health outcomes at this time, the response has been largely positive, according to Maybank.
“Qualitatively, a lot of folks who are riding the bikes enjoy doing it, and when someone enjoys exercise, they are likely to keep doing it,” she says. “Considering that just 15 minutes of exercise a day extends life expectancy, we can say we’re moving in the right direction.” (Hydration is key to staying healthy while riding. Grab yourself a pair of Bicyclingwater bottles.)
WNYC News reported on one participant, Xavier Rodney, a 31 year-old who lost about 25 pounds, lowered his blood pressure, and has reported feeling less anxiety and depression since taking up cycling last November.
The ultimate goal is for cases like this to keep coming from all walks of life throughout the city and, ultimately, the country.
“We want to see our health care institutions, like our hospital systems, really take this on as part of their work, especially in places that have the worst health outcomes,” Maybank says. “I’d like to see every single provider prescribe a bike for someone and have it be reimbursable like other care, because that’s just how it’s done.”