Thursday
Reading this blog will make you healthy
Friday is National Bike to Work day, this page lists New York City events for the day, the best of which is a Bridges by Night tour which I'd absolutely go on if I wasn't leaving town for the weekend. Many of my readers may be thinking, "But I already take mass transit to work, and the marginal public transit rider doesn't cause impose additional environmental costs!"
But readers who are thinking this are sadly mistaken. Off the top of my head, there are at least two environmental benefits (to say nothing of personal health) to switching from taking mass transit to work to biking to work. First of all, one reason not many people bike to work is that there aren't many other cyclists using the streets, and cycling is safer when more people are doing it and automotive traffic is therefore expecting cyclists. So by increasing the number of cyclists, you move the dynamic closer to a situation where more people besides you are cycling. Second of all, one reason not as many people as could be take mass transit to work is because they don't like crowds. By cycling to work, you're reducing how crowded mass transit is and this will, on the margin, cause some people to switch from driving to work to taking mass transit. People who actually know about urban planning and transit could probably provide reasons which aren't totally made up. Also, cycling strengthens your legs and improves your aerobic capacity.
I, of course, won't be participating in Bike to Work day because I'm going straight from the office to the airport.
