People often say that cycling to work instead of driving or using public transport is one of the best things you can do for your health and for the environment. But is it really as simple as that? Even though there are obvious health benefits to riding a bike to work every day, there are some potential health risks involved that people don’t tend to think about. The cost savings are also not as clear cut as they might seem, especially if you normally use public transport. So, is it really better to ride a bike to work?
Your Health
Everybody knows that exercise is incredibly important if you want to stay healthy. But a lot of people struggle to find the time in their busy schedule. By cycling to work, you can turn your commute into exercise, so even if you don’t have any spare time, you are still getting regular exercise every day, which has to be good for your health.
Unfortunately, when you are weighing up whether cycling is better, you have to consider other potential health risks. The most obvious one is the risk of injury because you could be knocked off, especially on busy roads. That means you have to go through the process of hiring a bicycle accident lawyer and making a claim, and then potentially deal with a lengthy recovery period if you sustained serious injuries. Without the protection of a vehicle, the risk of severe injury on the roads is much higher.
Pollution is another health risk that people don’t consider when cycling to work. If you are on your bike in a busy city with lots of cars, you are exposed to a lot of pollution. When exerting yourself on the bike, you breathe very heavily, so you take in a lot of pollutants. Over time, this can cause damage to your health. Although the positive benefits of cycling still outweigh the effect of pollution, it’s important that you are aware of the dangers.
The Cost
Reduced costs are another reason why people cycle to work, but is it really cheaper? If you drive to work every day, it is usually cheaper because fuel is expensive, and you don’t need to fill the bicycle up. However, there are costs involved with cycling that you need to consider. Firstly, if you don’t already have a bike, you will need to buy one and a decent bike will be expensive. Secondly, you need to take care of it properly and bicycle maintenance costs more than you might think. If you usually take public transport, you may find that the overall cost isn’t that much different. It’s important that you add up all of the associated costs and compare which is really the cheaper option.
There are also issues with consistency. If you would normally buy a cheap weekly pass for public transport but you decide to cycle instead, what happens on days when you are running late? You end up buying a full price ticket for public transport and you only need to do this a few times to negate the cost savings of cycling. So, unless you are consistent and you cycle almost every day, you won’t save money.
Overall, cycling to work does benefit you because you’re getting exercise. However, if you are riding through a busy city, you need to consider the other health risks. You should also add up all of the associated costs and make sure that you are actually saving money.