Bikes encourage healthy living, are less expensive than cars

September 19, 2017

Spencer Traut

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    I’ll admit it. Bikes are not the most convenient modes of transportation; cars are.

    Cars can take you anywhere you want to go with no effort beyond flexing your foot and steering. With everything you need to do in a day, cars seem like the only way to get to everything on time.

    But what is it costing you to have such instantaneous access to the city?

    While bikes might be slower, your bike costs nothing to use because it runs on your calories. Cars are an easier mode of transportation; you exert less energy driving a car, and a car can get you where you need to go faster.

    But bikes are a more purposeful way to travel.

    Cars have in speed what they lack in cost-efficiency. You need fuel in the car to even get it down the block, and gas costs about $2.50 per gallon right now. In 2011, Americans spent $368 on gas a month, according to CNN Money.

    Cars are also one of the fastest depreciating products available. According to trustedchoice.com, “a new car will lose up to 19 percent of its value in its first year of ownership.”

    Wherever you go on a bike, your own energy is the fuel. The distance you travel is a consequence of your own excursion. It’s what people who drive to the gym would call “cardio,” and it negates the need to go to the gym at all.

    Because you are getting your workout as you travel, you don’t need to make time elsewhere in the day to work off the fat you’ve accumulated sitting in traffic.

     People like cars because they may not always plan well, not because it’s the only way to make it everywhere on time. Some like to be able to leave at the last minute and still make it to class or work on time without always having to plan ahead.

    For some students, bikes may not be the most appropriate way to get to campus. Many students are commuters who don’t live five minutes away from campus, so cars may be the most efficient option for them.

   Even so, having your bike with you on campus is worth the steep ascent. Or, if you’re a commuter, an easier way to get around campus.

     Riding your bike to campus may take longer than driving there, but once you’re on campus, you have a quick way to travel the campus that you wouldn’t have with your parked car.

    Cars are great for the trip up to Denver, but with a little forethought, most of Colorado Springs is bike-accessible.

     Many people might be afraid to ride a bike because they don’t want to ride on the hectic roads of Colorado Springs. But they might have failed to consider the Pikes Peak Greenway, a bike highway that is connected to the Sante Fe Trail and ends in Palmer Lake.

     The Greenway has dozens of offshoots, including paths leading to Cragmor neighborhood, Palmer Park, Garden of the Gods, North Academy Boulevard, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs.      

    So consider biking as an alternative method of transportation.

    You might get healthier, and save some money, in the process of helping the environment.