by Sophia Goto

I looked at three Burnaby communities around me and found that those who reported to be using the bike routes more were also less obese (MHMC, 2019)! All three communities have well-maintained and easily accessible bike routes, but the neighborhoods of Burnaby Heights/Capitol Hill and Burnaby Mountain seem to be making better use of these pathways. The Buckingham/Lakeview/Gov’t Road neighbourhood appear to be using these routes way less. Interestingly enough, the former two neighborhoods also reported significantly lower rates of obesity than the latter. As a recent bike purchaser, I wanted to explore the health benefits associated with life on the bike. In my research, I found that young people such as myself can stop taking busses and start riding bikes to enjoy health benefits such as better fitness (Wild & Woodward, 2019), lower blood pressure (Correa-Bautista et al, 2018), and way more energy (Clementz et al., 2010). Biking isn’t just for us young adults, though. Our grandparents can hop on a bike, even a stationary one, to better their coordination and prevent serious falls (Beale et al., 2018). Biking improves mental health for everybody and reduces the stress associated with everyday commuting. It has prevented thousands of early deaths in The Netherlands (Fishman et al., 2015), and there is no reason why it can’t do the same for Canadians. The main idea is that biking improves health—it’s that simple. Anybody can do it because it’s low impact, meaning you’ll feel way better than you do after running on the pavement. Summer is among us and I encourage you all to put the car keys aside and bike to your next destination. Your health will thank you!

References

Dishman, R. K., Thom, N. J., Puetz, T. W., O’Connor, P. J., & Clementz, B. A. (2010). Effects of cycling exercise on vigor, fatigue, and electroencephalographic activity among young adults who report persistent fatigue. Psychophysiology, 47, 1066–1074. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01014.x

Fishman, E., Schepers, P., & Kamphuis, C. B. (2015). Dutch cycling: Quantifying the health and Related Economic Benefits. American Journal of Public Health, 105(8). https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2015.302724

García-Hermoso, A., Quintero, A. P., Hernández, E., Correa-Bautista, J. E., Izquierdo, M., Tordecilla-Sanders, A., Prieto-Benavides, D., Sandoval-Cuellar, C., González-Ruíz, K., Villa-González, E., & Ramírez-Vélez, R. (2018). Active commuting to and from university, obesity and metabolic syndrome among Colombian University students. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5450-5

Leyland, L.-A., Spencer, B., Beale, N., Jones, T., & van Reekum, C. M. (2019). The effect of cycling on cognitive function and well-being in older adults. PLOS ONE, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211779

My Health My Community. MHMC. (2019). Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://myhealthmycommunity.org/explore-results/

Wild, K., & Woodward, A. (2019). Why are cyclists the happiest commuters? health, pleasure and the e-bike. Journal of Transport & Health, 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.05.008