My last post, Cycling and the Media, focussed on some of the issues faced by the cycling community in the run up to the General Election. The election has been and gone and with a change of government many of those issues are unresolved. One pending development is a House of Lords debate on cycling safety issues scheduled to take place on September 12th. I fear the worst but I’m going to put that to one side and try to highlight some of the more positive aspects of cycling.

A simple Google search on “health benefits of cycling” produces an enormous number of results.

An article published on the Bupa website, What are the health benefits of cycling? lists the top five health benefits:

1 It improves your cardiovascular health

2 It can boost your mental health

3 It can strengthen your muscles and joints

4 It can help you manage your weight

5 It improves your balance and coordination

bikeradar ups the ante and offers 27 reasons to take up cycling!

This article in cycling.uk gives us some facts and figures to back up their claims. For example, “Compared to commuting by car, cycling is associated with a lower chance of dying from cardiovascular disease (-24%) and cancer (-16%).

The above quotation, which comes from an article published in The Lancet, points us towards another benefit of cycling.

Cycling has the potential to reduce disease in the population and the consequence may be that financial savings can be made by the National Health Service.

“The NHS would save £250m a year if one in 10 journeys were made by bicycle, according to a study commissioned for a campaign for government to treat cycling more seriously.” The Guardian 10th Feb 2014

The Guardian article quoted above is referring to a 10-point manifesto produced by British Cycling called Time to Choose Cycling.

Will their Lordships read that manifesto as part of their preparation for next Thursday’s debate? I hope they will but I’m not optimistic.