8 Billion Reasons You Might Consider Riding a Bike

Alex Thompson on L.A.'s bicycle culture

I'm not going to tell you these are reasons you should ride a bike. Biking isn't for everyone.  Instead, these are reasons to consider riding a bike, and they're primarily applicable to motorists.  Let's get started, because we have 8 billion reasons to get through:

FUN - Biking is awesomely fun. Do you remember riding around the neighborhood when your were a kid? As a kid my knees or elbows were always sporting a scab from something dumb & fun I tried to do on my bike. What's more fun than racing your friends around the neighborhood on beach cruisers? How about cruising to the park or beach?  fun. How about playing bike LINK polo?  Fun.  Joining a bunch of friends to barhop by bike through along the Hollywood strip?  FUN!  Commute by bike and you can experience some of that fun just zooming along to work. (+1 reason)

(4 out of 5 superheroes, and 9 out of 10 super villains ride bikes.  Photo by Alex Thompson)

Fitness - How many people sit frozen in LA traffic just to get home and trudge to the gym to use the elliptical trainer and stare at the wall. When you ride your bike to get places you're getting a workout on the way there. Further, the scenery is a lot more interesting than the wall or whatever nonsense the gym is showing on their screens. Thus, when you get home from your evening commute you can sink back into your couch and slurp down some juice, beer, wine, or whiskey. "But biking is risky" you say. Maybe so, maybe not, but a UK study showed that the cardiovascular benefits increase your lifespan more than 10 times as much as the additional risk decreases it. That's 10 reasons to bike, and one questionable reason not to. (+9 reasons)

Traffic is Transparent - Yesterday evening I rode Santa Monica Blvd from Beverly Hills to Echo Park during rush hour. I maintained a steady 15 to 20mph, so I made the trip in a fraction of an hour. Motorists, however, were stuck in traffic, making no better than 8 or 9mph. So they took twice as long to make that same trip. Commuting during rush hour by bike might save you as much as 30 minutes daily. That's 30 more reasons. (+30)

Free Parking - on that same trip, when I got where I was going there were no parking spaces anywhere. Guess what? I just locked my bike to a pole. I didn't have to spend ten minutes looking either. When I drove in LA I spent, implicitly or explicitly, at least $100 a month for parking, and easily spent an hour a month looking for parking. One hundred dollars and a whole lot of stress gives one hundred good reasons to ride. (+100)

Affordability - How much does it cost to own a car each year? Well, AAA calculated that in 2007 it cost the average driver $7,823. I have a sweet custom bike I built, which I ride in the gritty city. I have to replace certain elements of the drive train, as well as lights occasionally. Eventually I'll probably replace the bike . . . that would cost me $1500. Most years I spend about $600 on my bike, and for that I get about 6,000 or 7,000 miles out of it. $7,823 - $600 = 7,223 reasons to ride. (+7,223)

Asthma - A UCLA study indicates that for children suffering from asthma living near heavy traffic means they are three times more likely to visit the ER with than those living near low traffic. Riding a bikes means a reduction in particulate pollution. Approximately 100,000 children suffer from asthma in the City of LA, and half a million in the LA Metro Area. That's 500,000 reasons (+500,000)

Environment - Apart from the reduction in particulate pollution, bikes don't emit greenhouse gases. I might emit some, but not the bike. As well, the physical resources used for manufacturing a bike are next to nothing, so the vehicle itself is very low impact. It will be important to have plenty of spare resources around when we're all living under water after global warming melts all the ice. With a projected world population of EIGHT BILLION in 2025, we all need to find ways to live smaller. That's eight billion more reasons! (+8,000,000,000)

Let's do the math:

8 billion + 500,000 + 7,223 + 100 +30 + 9 + 1 = ???

It's 8 billion.  Adding all that tiny stuff doesn't change it much - trust me, I'm a mathematician.  Somewhere in those 8 billion reasons maybe you can find one that appeals to you.

Still, the most import reason is that biking is FUN.  Find new ways to enjoy life.  Two wheels might just be one way.

(A rider does a "Superman" at the Bicycle Film Festival Block Party in 2007, Los Angeles.  Photo by Gary Kavanagh.)

Comments

[fellow biker]

Fantastic account of riding a bike in Los Angeles!

[Alice]

Cool pictures!
And I totally agree with you. Riding a bike is FUN. I ride to work and for now because I'm only riding a short distance I can wear the clothes I work in when I ride. But in the future should I have a longer bike commute, finding a place to change and store my clothes may become an issue. Any tips on that?

[Dan W.]

In Europe, there were cities where the bike paths were a different color. I'd welcome that here, both as someone who would like to ride a bike more and as a pedestrian who would like to peacefully coexist with them.

If you take in and load it on the bike rack on the bus, make sure you remember to take it with you when you disembark the bus. I saw a not so comical scene the other day with someone running after the bus after he exited. (He eventually stopped the bus.)

[Enci]

I ride my bike for all 8 billion reasons. And some! I ride my bike in heels and skirt or boots and dress suite. Whatever the audition calls for, or whatever the job asks for ;-)

[Alex Thompson]

Thanks "fellow biker"!

@Alice

I can't say I have to deal with this too often. I went to Santa Monica City Council last week and a public planning meeting this week. The way I did it was I rode in my $6 thrift store nice suit pants and a t-shirt, and I kept it reasonably paced. When I got there I pulled around the corner, took off my shirt and put on a nice blue collared shirt, tucked it in and there you go. I've also used bathrooms to change in this situation. Not the greatest solution but it works for me.

@Dan W

MTA says they get something like 3000 bikes a year which people forget to take off the front. Of those, only half of them are ever picked up by their owners!

@Enci

Enci's a road warrior for real!

[Damien Newton]

It's not just Europe that has colored bike lanes, Portland and Tempe (yes, Tempe) both have colored lanes and Chicago, and other major cities are putting them in. Its starting to catch on here in the US, and hopefullly it can be part of the city's BMP.

[ubrayj02]

In all of this bicycling, I wonder - what about helmets?! Kids could get the impression that bike riding is safe! Please, next time include pictures of bike riders wearing helmets! Think of the children!11!

Sorry for that. I'm just kidding. I really appreciate this article, Alex. I'm going to forward it to my mommy.

Maybe she'll let me go bike riding after reading it.

[Alex Thompson]

ubrayj

Tell you mom that batman doesn't need a helmet!!!

(BWC!!!)