Save America – Ride To Work

Bicycle Commuters in Seim Reap Cambodia

I think it’s high time that we started tackling problems that affect our country on a personal level and watch to see how it effects the overall problem. Two gigantic problems we face in America today are our dependence on foreign oil [and fossil fuels in general] and a populous that gets more obese and unhealthy with each passing day. Ok so, as a Country, we use too much oil and we are way too fat. Voila! Ride your bike to work.

Part 1: Riding over the obesity speedbump:

Okay lets look at some statistics regarding obesity in the United States from a recent study by the Center for Disease Control [CDC]. Published by Katherine M. Flegal, PhD, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on January 13, 2010. Titled: Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008

Fact 1: The prevalence of obesity in the United States continues to be high, exceeding 30% in most sex and age groups.

So over 30% of Americans over the age of 20 years are obese, but wait, it gets worse, much worse. 67% of American adults are overweight. So basically for every three adults 1 is obese, 1 is overweight and heading to obesity, and 1 is neither overweight nor obese. The ‘much worse’ part extends to our next fact which shows obesity rates to be growing by 6-7% per year.

Fact 2: The prevalence of obesity for adults aged 20 to 74 years increased by 7.9 percentage points for men and by 8.9 percentage points for women between 1976-1980 and 1988-1994, and subsequently by 7.1 percentage points for men and by 8.1 percentage points for women between 1988-1994 and 1999-2000.1 If the trends between 1988-1994 and 1999-2000 continued at approximately the same annual level, an increase of 6 to 7 percentage points between 1999-2000 and 2008-2009 would be expected for both men and women.

So I’m going to infer here that if we don’t make changes soon that break down of three adult Americans will soon change to 2 obese Adult Americans and 1 over weight American but wait…that can’t be true. This is because the obese person in the first scenario opens themselves up to all kinds of nasty health conditions that will aid in their premature erasure from the planet as demonstrated in the CDC’s next point.

Fact 3: Obesity is a risk factor for a variety of chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, certain cancers, and arthritis. Higher grades of obesity are associated with excess mortality, primarily from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. In the United States, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased significantly from 1988-1994 through 2005-2006.

The obesity rate [30%] will probably not climb as high as the ‘only overweight’ [67%] rate because those people will simply die off. This seems catastrophic;however, there is a silver lining.

Fact 4: Population-based strategies that improve social and physical environmental contexts for healthful eating and physical activity are complementary to clinical preventive strategies and to treatment programs for those who are already obese. Preventive population-level interventions having to do with the built environment and the food environment may lead to health benefits for the entire population.

By built environment they refer to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for your life, e.g. your neighborhood, house, streets, etc. Everything that makes up where you live, work, and play is the built environment. I do not suggest that we build anything new. I’m suggesting that we collectively get more exercise and in the form of bicycle commuting. The infrastructure is there already. Roadways, bike lanes, multi-use paths, bike racks, it’s already there. Riding your bike to work is the perfect solution to not getting enough or having enough time to exercise. Kudos to people who walk or even run to work as well. Basically, as a country, we need more exercise.

I get 35 Miles per PBJ sandwich and the only oil I use is chainlube:

The fossil fuel problem and the way it relates to bicycle commuting is just as simple. Leave the car at home or be like me and just don’t own one. Here we will start off with a quote from the Commander in Chief.

“So we have a choice to make.  We can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy.  We can let climate change continue to go unchecked, or we can help stop it.”  -PRESIDENT OBAMA, MARCH 19, 2009

The page goes on to announce the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which includes over $80 billion spent on reducing our dependence on foreign oil, some of which actually pertains to specific bicycle improvement. This is a start; however, a much more tangible result would be YOU riding your bike to work starting tomorrow morning.

The United States Department of Energy website clearly states that ‘virtually all of our transportation fuels‘ are made up of fossil fuels imported from foreign sources. Many of these foreign sources are from regions in and around the Persian Gulf. As a former New York City resident who worked 3 blocks from the World Trade Center on September 11th, 1991 I find this fact quite unsettling. Even more disturbing are the numbers we shell out for this black gold during the worst economic crisis of our lifetime:

America imported 4.35 BILLION barrels of oil in 2009 or $500,000 dollars spent per MINUTE on foreign oil to the tune of $265 BILLION sent overseas. We still haven’t adopted a sustainable energy plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

So oil and obesity, arguably two of our America’s greatest problems paired with the simplest of solutions. If you are able, ride your bike to work tomorrow. You will find it to be enjoyable even in the worst conditions. I realize that it requires more effort on your part, but we need to make an effort. Our Government cannot fix these problems for they take shape within our individual lifestyles. The Government is not to blame. Don’t make the mistake of waiting for them to fix what you and I broke through our collective laziness and our chronic case of individual entitlement. Maybe you only ride to a park-n-ride, or train station. Maybe you ride to a carpool. I am a bike commuter. I do not own a car. Ride your bike to work today, please.