Pros and Cons of Biking to Work

At at time when gas is going for three bucks a gallon and we can’t pick up a newspaper without reading about an epidemic of obesity, biking to work would seem like a no brainer. Save money, lose calories, cut pollution, and feel great when you arrive at the office, right? Almost right. The L.A. Times gives us a “Special Report on the Biking Commute,” and unearths a couple of things to worry about. Biking accidents is the big concern, but the paper points out that urban bike safety can be learned, and it quotes Long Beach-based bike safety instructor Dan Gutierrez advising us that cycling as if we were a vehicle — so-called “vehicular” or
“integrated traffic” cycling — will remove most of the ways we can be
harmed while riding in traffic. The other big worry is the pollution, or that part of the pollution that we suck into our lungs while riding through the streets of cities like Los Angeles. The paper reports on a  2005 study that looked at the effects of pollution —
especially ultra-fine particles that are made up of carbon and metals —
on blood pressure. When researchers subjected 23 people to air
pollution levels within acceptable ranges and compared them with people
who were breathing clean air, the group breathing bad air experienced a 5% to 10% rise in blood
pressure, –not enough to impair a healthy person, but enough to
cause a problem for people who are older or who have heart and
lung ailments. Read more about the pros and cons of biking to work in the L.A. Times.  Read about what L.A. employers and the city officials are doing to encourage people to bike to work.