• It reduces air pollution. In Louisville Metro, more than 40% of commuting trips and about 60% of all private motor vehicle trips are within 5 miles in length. Converting ¼ of these trips to bicycle trips would keep approximately 3 tons per day of smog-forming emissions out of our air. It will also reduce emissions of carbon monoxide, a poisonous pollutant, by 15 tons per day and emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, by 500 tons a day.
• It reduces traffic congestion. Shifting even a few % of trips from automotive traffic on a major road to bicycle trips on side streets could reduce congestion delays significantly, because congestion delays rise rapidly with increasing traffic once a road is at or near its design capacity.
• It improves personal health – mental and physical. Depending on your weight and your bicycling speed, you burn 400 – 800 calories per hour of bicycling. In an 8-mile commuting round-trip, you will burn 300 – 500 calories. If you do this 4 days/week, 40 weeks/year, you will burn enough calories to lose 10 – 20 pounds of body fat. The aerobic exercise of bicycling reduces risks of heart attack, stroke, and several types of cancer. It also reduces psychological stress and helps control or prevent depression.
• It feels good! You get to work (or return home) feeling alert and refreshed. 
• Bicycle commuters show higher workplace productivity, lower absentee rates, and lower workplace injuries than their coworkers who commute by other modes. 
• It saves money – typically $0.25 – 0.30/mile compared with driving a car. Our hypothetical bicyclist commuting 8-mile RT/day x 4 d/wk x 40 wk/yr will save over $300/year, plus any automotive parking expenses. Even larger savings result from reducing the number of cars in your household.

Making Bicycle Commuting Practical for You

• You don’t need to bicycle to work every day to get benefits from bicycle commuting. Combine bicycling with the bus or a carpool or driving to create a commuting pattern that serves your needs. 
• TARC Bikes-on-Board racks make much longer commuting trips suitable for bicycling, and make it possible to avoid riding on more hazardous roads. For example, if you live in Fern Creek and work at U of L, you can ride your bicycle to Bardstown Road, take a #17 or #43 TARC bus most of the way, and ride your bicycle the last mile or so to campus. This means you don’t need to transfer to a 2nd bus and don’t need to ride bicycle on a highway with heavy traffic. 
• You can drive to work on Monday, leave business clothes at the office for the next 3 days when you will commute by bicycle, and then drive again on Friday when you will take your clothes home to wash.