It’s as easy as riding a bike
Or, why cycling is a win we need
When I moved to Toronto, I was a pretty capable cyclist, but I still thought anyone who biked this city had a death wish. Cabs! Streetcar tracks! Parked cars! Pedestrians! Black ice! Even though cycling was perfectly aligned with my eco values and my great loves — fresh air, fitness, and frugality — I was terrified.
But then I signed up a book on safe urban cycling (The Urban Cycling Survival Guide) and made a deal with the author that we would both do something scary: she would write her first book, and I would become an urban cyclist.
Reader, I fell in love.
I became fitter. I saved money. I got places faster (and on a more predictable timeline). I didn’t produce pollution. I was never trapped on a stalled subway trying to decipher garbled PA announcements. I felt connected to my city in a whole new way. But perhaps most importantly I understood what empowerment felt like. I’d pedalled through fear into confidence. It’s not an exaggeration to say it’s one of the most important things I’ve done as an adult.
And I’m not alone in looking at my bike with heart eyes. A study out of the University of Minnesota found cycling was the form of transit that makes people happiest. Another study out of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health found “bicycles were associated with better self-perceived general health, better mental health, greater vitality, lower self-perceived stress and fewer feelings of loneliness.”
But cycling won’t just make you happier and healthier, it’s a vital component of healthier cities and the fight against climate change.
According to Drawdown, in 2018 around 3% of trips globally were made by bike, though in some cycling meccas, like the Netherlands, it was as high as 30%. However if that share rose globally to between 4% and 8% by 2050, we could reduce emissions by between 2.6 and 6.6 gigatons. But what about the price tag? Focusing on developing bike infrastructure, instead of car-focused roads, could save taxpayers $2.7–7.5 trillion in construction costs and $827–2,400 billion in operational costs. Hot damn! Plus, we see significant healthcare savings. (A UK study found that adopting cycling at Danish levels would save the National Health Service £17 billion over 20 years!)
Driving creates about 0.28 kg of CO2 per kilometre. It might not sound like much, but I cycle about 2,000 km/year. If I were to drive, I’d have released 560 kg of CO2. Now what if just the subscribers on this newsletter did that? That’d be 148,400 kg/year of CO2 not melting our permafrost.
Cycling is also an inexpensive form of transit — for the price of a monthly transit pass, you could get a decent used bike that keeps you moving at least nine months of the year. In a city with an affordability crisis, cycling isn’t just an environmental opportunity, it’s an economic justice opportunity. Even accounting for repairs, I’d say my nine-month riding easily saves me $1,000/year in transit fare.
Now let’s talk road congestion. People on bikes take cars off the road, preventing congestion, which is a) super annoying when you’re stuck in it, and b) a source of bonus air pollution. This photo nicely illustrates the space implications of moving 60 people:
Which street would you like to be on?
Yes, bike lanes can take up car space, but often that’s just space for parked cars, which aren’t helping traffic move any better. And as we build safe, connected, well-marked infrastructure, we should have fewer cars on the road and things will get even faster for drivers.
Bikes also require 8x less space for parking (and cars spend 80% of their time parked — we can do better things with our precious urban real estate), don’t create noise pollution, and are easier on the asphalt (read: less construction, more tax $ savings) because they’re lighter. Civic wins all around.
Have I convinced you? I hope so. And if you’re afraid, I assure you, I was too. Heart-racingly afraid. But after you learn the basic rules, urban cycling is about 50% finding the right routes, and 50% confidence. Let fear be a beginning instead of an ending.
Here are this week’s marching orders!
Get out and bike!
Our streets currently have a fraction of their usual traffic, and there’s never been a better time to put the pedals to the . . . er, air. (Plus, if your other option is transit, biking reduces vectoring possibilities.) Burn some of that anxious energy, and take in a few sights that aren’t the four walls of your dwelling. Even if you don’t have a bike, borrow one, or try out a bike share program. A few tips to get started:
If you’re nervous about the rules, Cycle Toronto has a free downloadable handbook that outlines need-to-know info.
Plan your route: Google Maps will plot a bike route for you (and helpfully advise you about pesky elevation gain).
Practise with short trips on residential streets, and ride with a more experienced buddy if possible. (A great social-distance friendly hang!)
When in doubt, walk your bike! This was one of the most useful and liberating tips of the Urban Cycling Survival Guide. The beauty of a bike is you’re never stuck, and when in doubt, get off and walk your bike around whatever’s making you nervous or slowing you down.
Support cycling infrastructure.
The best thing you can do to support ridership, and consequently safety, is to create infrastructure. Because the thing that makes cyclists safest is not bells or whistles (literal or figurative), but other cyclists.
A couple years ago, Bloor Street, the busy main thoroughfare by my house, got a cycling pilot project. The city installed temporary bike lanes and gathered data on usage and perception by pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and local business owners. And the data was inarguable. Cycling on Bloor went from 7% to 18% (almost tripling), and 77% of people felt safer. (On Richmond and Adelaide Streets, in the heart of downtown, ridership on installed bike lanes went up ten-fold.) Local businesses saw more customers and more sales. For cars, coordination of traffic lights meant travel times only went up two to three minutes during rush hour.
And while any construction in the city is disruptive, cost shouldn’t be an issue. A mile of bike infrastructure is up to 100x cheaper than a mile for cars.
While Toronto has made some progress, we’re still lagging behind other Canadian cities (let alone those European bike havens). Here’s a chart from the Pembina Institute of four types of bike lanes (more separate = safer) per 100,000 people:
Toronto claims to be a world-class city, but right now we’re not even stacking up in our own country. So how do we fix that? You could send a message of support to your city councillor (maybe post-pandemic), and/or you could . . .
Donate to your local cyclist union.
When it comes to cycling, advocacy isn’t just important to getting more people on two wheels, it can be a matter of life and death. So for the last several years, I’ve been a member of Cycle Toronto, who takes care of the lobbying so I don’t have to. They do great work advocating for bike lanes and building a safe cycling grid for Toronto, offering free workshops and school programming, giving out free front and rear lights in October to help keep people more visible, and more. If you’re already a Toronto cyclist and not a member, memberships start at $5/month, less than one round-trip ride on the TTC. (Plus, there are membership perks, like one free flat fix a year.) Non-cyclists can of course donate too: safer cycling makes for safer roads for everyone.
TL;DR
Cycling is good for the environment, physical health, and mental health. Plus it saves you money!
If you want safer streets for all road users, support cycling infrastructure.
If you’re a regular cyclist, support the invaluable work of your local cyclist union.
Wins of the Week
“To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.”
— Welsh novelist Raymond Williams
Here are some good things you fine folks are making happen:
Penny and her family have ditched paper towels for reusable cloths.
Beth used a trip to Moncton to grab some bulk refills not available at home.
During two weeks of travelling (pre-COVID), my parents avoided coffee cups, water in plastic, and plastic bags.
Please keep these wins coming! I want to be the Jerry to your cheer squad. Every time you email me, I feel like we just hit the pyramid.
(Also, all I want right now — I mean aside from an end to COVID-19 — is to be as invested in a show as I was in Cheer.)
Thanks to everyone who keeps showing up to read about the environment when other worries are more pressing. You keep me motivated to churn these out, even when I’m under other deadlines. If you value this little dispatch, please do share it with others! The bigger the FMFP fam, the more good we can do.
xo JK