Anyone who truly cares about the state of the planet is trying to do their part.
As mountain bikers, we should probably care more than most considering how closely our hobby is tied to a healthy environment.
There are so many approaches that you might wish to take in order to achieve that. One of the simplest behaviors you can engage in is to cycle more often. But how does this actually help with your attempts to be more eco-friendly? Here are just some of the benefits to ditching the car in favour of a bike.
One of the most fundamental environmental benefits to cycling is that it produces hardly any carbon compared to other modes of transportation. Cars are obviously one of the main culprits, but even public transport such as trains and busses produce a lot. As carbon emmissions are one of the main causes to global warming and the resultin environmental damage, keeping it low is key to ensuring our shared future. Riding bikes, be it to commute or for fun, is a way to help reduce our carbon output.
Save your energy with alternative energy
Commuting, struggling to get up the hills or just trying to extend your rides? Would you consider an e-bike? The benefits to this are clear: you can get around more easily with less effort, but you are still not producing carbon in order to do so. If you live in or near a larger urban area, using an e-bike to commute is possibly one of the biggest steps you can take to reduce your personal carbon footprint. No public transport, no traffic jams and get some exercise in to boot. The choice of e-bikes is growing by the week with brands like Sunmono offering electric versions of everything from mountain bikes to cargo and commuted bikes.
Creating A Need For Space
Another indirect way that cycling helps the environment is that the more people cycle the more of a demand there is for places to ride bikes. In towns and cities for open, green spaces rather than space for traffic. At trail centers for more trails and facilities. It’s a snowball effect. The more people that ride bikes, the more facilities that will appear thus inspiring more people to get out and ride. Everyone’s a winner!
It turns out just getting into cycling could help your own wellbeing, physical and mental. It could help your local community. And it can help save the planet.
If that’s not the perfect excuse to go ride your bike right now…
In general, a populace that cycles more will produce a lot less pollution into the air than one which is mostly driving cars and using other modes of transport. With lower pollution comes a happier and healthier population and a happier and healthier ecosystem.
It turns out just getting into cycling could help your own wellbeing, physical and mental. It could help your local community. And it can help save the planet. If that’s not the perfect excuse to go ride your bike right now…
