Maybe you should have a list all printed up and ready to hand out to the curious. Here's a start:
Burn Fat, not Oil: 30 Reasons to Ride a Bicycle for Transportation
1. Cycling provides mobility while reducing traffic congestion. The vast majority of U.S. population growth from the current 300 million to 420 million by 2050 will occur in urban areas, where there is limited ability to accommodate increased motor vehicle travel and where 40 percent of trips are less than two miles and 28 percent are less than one mile.
2. Cycling can achieve a more predictable commute time and can even be faster than driving in a congested urban environment. Bicycle commuters on average avoid 50 hours of gridlock traffic each year.
3. Cycling affords mobility for the one-third of the population that does not drive due to age, disability, ineligibility, economic circumstances, or personal choice.
4. Cycling is possible in a wide variety of climates and topographies.
5. Cycling can transform your commute from the worst to the best part of your day.
6. Cycling reduces energy consumption. The bicycle is the most energy-efficient means of transportation ever invented. A cyclist can travel 3 miles on the energy from one egg. Walking would require 3 eggs to go the same distance. A fully occupied bus requires the energy equivalent of 2 dozen eggs to carry each person 3 miles. A train: 3 dozen eggs per person. A car @ 12.5 mpg: 7 dozen eggs per person. For the average 180 pound American adult piloting a 4,000 pound vehicle, 96 cents of every dollar paid at the gas pump is used to propel the vehicle, not the human riding inside.
7. Cycling reduces our dependence on foreign oil.
8. Cycling reduces the flow of money to those who want to exterminate us.
9. Cycling reduces auto-related costs such as purchase price, finance charges, licensing and registration, fuel, fluids, tires, maintenance, car washing, insurance, and parking.
10. Cycling eliminates the need for a health club membership.
11. Cycling reduces the demand for new roads.
12. Cycling produces negligible road wear, thereby decreasing road maintenance costs.
13. Cycling stimulates the demand for bike facilities, which increase property values.
14. Cycling increases one’s productivity at work.
15. Cycling is low impact exercise. The Center for Disease Control estimates that if all physically inactive Americans became active, the U.S. would save $77 billion in annual heath care costs.
16. Cycling is a cure for the obesity epidemic.
17. Cycling improves endurance and cardio-vascular health.
18. Cycling enhances strength, muscle tone, and bone mass.
19. Cycling increases agility and flexibility.
20. Cycling improves self-esteem.
21. Cycling reduces stress and is therapeutic for the mind and spirit.
22. Cycling reduces the state-sanctioned murder of innocent people (homicide by motor vehicle). Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for children ages 3 to 14 in the U.S.
23. Cycling indoctrinates children into an active lifestyle and can help break America’s pathological addiction to the automobile. In 1969, approximately 50 percent of children in the U.S. got to school by walking or bicycling. Presently, less than 15 percent of students walk or bicycle to school.
24. Cycling reduces air pollution. Bicycle commuters on average reduce their carbon emissions by 128 pounds per year.
25. Cycling reduces water pollution. Bicycles don't drip brake fluid, anti-freeze, and transmission fluid.
26. Cycling produce negligible noise pollution.
27. Cycling reduces the demand for new roads and parking lots and paving over the earth with asphalt and concrete.
28. Cycling reduces deforestation for planting of rubber plantations, because bicycles use very little rubber.
29. Cycling decreases road kill and saves animals from a cruel and violent death.
30. Cycling allows one to better appreciate the nuances of the natural and built environment.
Last edited by High Roller; 09-07-10 at 02:16 PM.