To Bike or Not to Bike: THAT is the Question

Guest blogger Dave Greene returns to GPB, this time to talk about his favorite thing to do: Biking. This is another installment of the Clean Currents‘ sponsored posts from your neighborhood green energy company.

To bike or not to bike? Is that ever a serious question?

Not for this green guy. If there’s any possible way, I always bike. Even if it’s not exactly easy. Even if it’s raining, even if it’s 100 degrees outside, even if I have to go to the hardware store and there’s an 85% chance I will need to drag home several 2x4s (that wasn’t fun, but I DID IT).

I bike because it’s better for the planet than owning a car, and it’s better for you physically (as long as you wear a helmet. I’m looking at you, hipsters). Plus, biking is a GREAT way to offset any extracurricular cheesesteaks you might have indulged in. But the main reason I bike so much is because I love it.

There’s nothing like the freedom you feel when you hop on your bike and sprint down the block, feeling the wind in your face and watching your neighborhood slide by like an old movie shot on Super 8. In a car, you’re always going too fast.

The fun of it is the best reason to bike, but think of the planet-saving angle too. If just half of all trips under three miles were taken by bike instead of car, our country alone would save 24 billion gallons of gas (and carbon emissions) each year—24 billion.

If you ever feel like there’s nothing you can do to help stem the tide of climate destruction, just remember that. Every gallon of gas you don’t burn keeps 19 pounds of carbon dioxide here on the ground instead of up in the atmosphere like an unwanted wool sweater on a summer day.

Plus, Philly is a great place to bike, and it’s getting better every day, what with new bike paths being built, awesome action groups like the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia advocating for us all the time, and our very own Bike Share program set to launch in under a year! We even have our own naked bike ride. Which, I’ll be honest, doesn’t sound like fun to me, but who am I to judge?

So what are you waiting for? Get on those two wheels and make the world a better  place!