Now, before someone calls me a hypocrite, this post is not about my personal journey of going carless…because I haven’t started that journey yet.
This post is, however, about how any attempt, not matter how big or small, and for any amount of time one goes carless, is a great idea.
Here’s why, in pro/con format:
Pros!
Green is good. Biking makes your carbon footprint smaller. Cars put out approximately 20.4 lbs of CO2 emissions per gallon, SUV’s is up around 28 lbs. If you biked the equivalent of 1 gallon of gas per day (lets say 20 miles), you would lower your carbon footprint by almost 7500 pounds every year! (source)
For your health: Air pollution makes it harder for you to breathe, can send you to the hospital if you suffer from asthma, and possibly worse if you have respiratory problems. Not to mention that where I live, known as the Wasatch Front, is constantly ranked as one of the worst areas in the nation for certain types of air pollution.
Aside from lessening the pollution you’re putting out by not driving, biking is good for your respiratory system, your heart, and your overall fitness level.
It makes you more efficient! Think about it. If you’re going out to run errands on a bike, you’re probably going to plan your trip before you walk out the door so as to save time & energy. That spills over into how you treat the errands you need to run with a car, saving gas and lowering CO2 emissions.
Cons: ummm…sometimes it rains? and ummm, Utah drivers can often be quite scary…?
Sure, there are probably cons, but I personally think that the supposed down sides to biking or even walking to work/errands/whatever aren’t really that bad.
So, if you’ve got a bike, and if things are finally starting to warm up for you wherever you may live, then try it out, or keep it up if you’ve already tried to implement some carless practices in your day to day schedules.
Going carless: definitely worth repeating.
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