If you bike to work, you live longer, new study confirms
If you bike to work, you live longer, new study confirms
If you’re looking for an affordable and accessible way to live longer, skip the pricey wellness retreats and quirky biohacks—just bike to work.
If you’re looking for an affordable and accessible way to live longer, skip the pricey wellness retreats and quirky biohacks—just bike to work.
The crosses and bicycles painted white in memorial on the side of the road near me would tell a different story.
thing is, car drivers aren't really safer from bad drivers killing them
Not overall. But in my area, yeah no one bikes because bikers die.
This statistic tells us that the health benefits of cycling outweigh the increased chance of an accident.
I have lived here 18 years. I have only seen one person try to bicycle commute in that time. He disappeared after a month. It's just two narrow lanes and a ditch with lots of heavy truck traffic, high speeds, and curves. One time I tried walking home from the tire shop - about two miles. Four people stopped to offer me a ride because being on the side of these roads is that dangerous.
"Groundbreaking study finds that cardio is good for you"
We must now do a new study to see if walking more each day extends your life.
And then another study to see if jogging extends your life.
And other to see if swimming can extend your life.
Isn't this essentially "exercise is good for you"?
It's also reassuring people like the dozen nervous nellies in this thread that cycle commuting (ie specifically biking through the city with traffic on a daily basis) is a net benefit despite the perceived risks.
The nuance is that exercise that's baked into people's everyday routines gets done, and so extends healthy life. Exercise that requires extra time and effort gets done a lot less. This is why everyday physical activity through moving around is so important
This is part of why I like working a trades job. On a big install i can easily walk down and back up the customer's basement stairs 25 times. I get to use my muscles on wrenches and hammers. It isnt as good or consistent as exercise at a gym and I should be doing yoga more often to help with driving related posture, repetitive movements from work, and overall muscle maintenance, but I'm at least more active than a desk job.
Exercise is good for you and being able to afford to live somewhere biking to work is a viable means of transportation.
If you include benefits to mental health, then yes.
many comments saying “duh cardio good” ignore the corollary to this: a society that prevents bike commuting due to dangerous or inaccessible car-centric infrastructure is performing social violence and causing prevetable death
edit: similar considerations apply to the obesity epidemic.
My life expectancy would dive off a cliff if I tried to commute by bike. Not because of the bike itself, but rather because of the metal boxes of death whizzing next to me.
Yeah this needs a bit asterisc: you need to live in a place that isn't actively trying to kill cyclists and pedestrians through urban design.
It seems that they didn't take nutrition into account at all. How much of this study is just "people who exercise just eat better"?
I cycle to work everyday off year I am mostly cheese and beer
Not clear on that, but even if you had a poor diet and exercised regularly, you'd still be better off than if you had a poor diet and were totally sedentary.
That seems reasonable but that's also what this study was supposed to put to the test so we can't just assume it.
Unless you get run over by a car because your city doesn't have bike lanes. Then you live shorter.
Cries in Ontario where scary bike lanes are illegal.
To follow this advice, I'd end up getting my bike out of the garage, riding around the block ... then going back inside to turn on my work laptop. I love working from home.
That being said, a 15 minute morning bike ride before work would still be a good idea.
When I work from home, I bike with my dog for 20-30 minutes in the morning. On office days, I only bike 5 minutes to the train station…
I used to have a wonderful 11km bike commute along the river, my favorite of all time.
wonderful 11km bike commute along the river
That sounds lovely! I live in a city that has parkways and greenery along most of the river front -- if that were my route to work each day, I'd find it rather soothing. Beautiful path.
Go get breakfast then come back and start working? I did that when I was remote and it wasn't a 1:1 replacement for a good ride but it was still pretty good.
Breakfast is in my kitchen. A quick ride while I wait for the coffee to brew wouldn't be a bad thing, though
You can still use the bike for shopping and the like. It's still good to get out on WFH days.
I suppose I could. It's not super practical, though. I don't have panniers on my bike, limiting the amount I can carry*
Also, it's a 20 minute bike ride to my usual grocery store - bad for cold stuff (only 5 minutes to the expen$ive local shop, TBF)*
Really, though, my wife picks up more of the groceries than I do -- she has a 20 minute drive to work, and the grocery store is only a 5 minute detour by car.
*(the starred items are minor obstacles, not deal-breakers. The more honest answer is "but biking would take more time!" which ... ok, is just laziness).
With remote work I found having a routine to start and end the day help separate it, was killing some hobbies because was hard for my brain to separate them, so a fake commutes would actually probably be amazing for that.
I would have a signficantly shorter lifespan when I get run down by a ford
Apparently bike commuters still come out ahead, judging by the wording.
I read another study that said even downhill MTB riders still come out ahead on average, despite the much higher risk of injuries, so it seems likely that commuters are still better off too.
What happens when you get ran over by a Toyota instead?
Think of it as a conditional probability time stream on an actuary table:
• Every day that you don't get killed by a Ford f-450, your lifespan increases by a few minutes
• This is like putting pennies into the penny jar
• Eventually the penny jar gets full and then you are killed by a Ford f-450, thus spilling all of the contents (and your contents), onto the road.
• Thus, the energetic principle of conservation of entropy is preserved, with positive entropy.
Excuses, bring AR while cycling. /s
You joke, but I bet a visibly armed cyclist get messed with a lot less. I usually just opt for a camera though, being visibly armed can get you targeted by people who either want a gun or already have one and are about to do something terrible.
You clearly just need a more heavily armoured bike. You should start running down the fords!
Reactive armor: If they're going to take you out, they're gonna go too!
[pretend I posted that picture of a cargo bike hauling propane here]
This feels like Hanks Razor would apply. Proximity to work, dedicated bike infrastructure and availability and quality of bikes are all pretty good stand ins for socioeconomic factors having a strong impact on the outcome.
Plus. Let’s say I have a chronic disease or am generally in weak health. I’m going to have a lower life expectancy, and I’m not going to be able to bike to work.
Correlation ≠ Causation
A lot of the costs can even out a bit more if you can manage to live car free. No car payments, insurance, repairs or gas is all extra money that can go to a decent bicycle and a higher cost for rent/mortgage. You can also advocate for biking improvements in your local area.
new study confirms
No it doesn't. Their conclusion is "This study strengthens the evidence that active commuting has population-level health benefits and can contribute to reduced morbidity and mortality."
sounds like confirmation to me, an apt popular science headline. maybe you think “confirms” means “proves”?
Well, english is not my first language, but according to Google (they get their word meanings from Oxford) "confirm" means "establish the truth or correctness of (something previously believed or suspected to be the case)." Perhaps in this specific situation "confirm" has different meaning?
Also, there is a lot wrong how science is communicated in popular media. Taking singular study, coming up with sensational (and incorrect) title and making statements that aren't in line with the study is not the way how science should be communicated. Even if there are multiple news outlets writing numerous such articles doesn't make it right, correct or even acceptable.
Makes me wonder to what degree the longer life offsets the carbon savings from bike commuting.
I figure that would vary wildly depending on how the individual lives.
What if you don't work OR bike?
Ha not in my town.
If I biked to work, it would take me 3-4 hours one way...
If I biked to work it would take less than three seconds and leave tyre marks on my carpet.
I'm not sure I could fit a full bike between my bed and my desk, actually lol. I'll just round up to a full 1 second then.
If I biked to work I’d be hit by three rednecks in giant trucks. And it would also take me 3-4 hours.
Maybe living closer to where you have to work everyday would fix that. Of course in north america we've made it very difficult to build in existing city land and instead we keep building more and more satellite communties that commute to an urban center, and then ruin that urban center by constantly driving and parking cars where many people are trying to work and live. So living close to work has become very difficult for many people.
If you live within biking range, you obviously have other economic advantages.
It's called Europe
This is why I factor in distance to a rail stop when apartment/job hunting. It's a LOT easier to find a job near a stop than just near my neighborhood.
"accessible" 🙄
but at what cost
No insurance, minimal maintance, low acquisition cost, no fuel cost, no registration, no gridlock, gets you outdoor time and exercise time while also commuting.
Looks like a pretty low cost to me.
Like $500 for the bike and $200/year in maintenance costs?