A short, “no-brainer” bike commute will not make you sweat.  In fact, you might even use less energy biking to work than you already use walking to the subway.  Often when I tell people that I bike for transportation they say, “What good exercise.”  I’ve always kind of shrugged this comment off because my primary reason for biking is convenience, not physical fitness.  But the more I think about it, I think that statement is just plain wrong and misleading.  It’s often cited that cities with a strong biking culture are less obese and that cycling is a great way to improve public health. The health benefit is usually stressed in bike advocacy campaigns, but I think that promoting “biking as exercise” discourages more cyclists than it attracts.  

The fact is, you don’t have to be in terrific shape to bike short distances, and biking to work might not help you lose weight.  Granted, increased cycling can probably make a difference in cities where most people drive from their homes directly to their destination, but New York is not that sort of city.  Most people here walk and take public transportation, and boy do we walk a lot.  I can’t tell you how many exhausted tourists I’ve heard say, “Man, we walked everywhere today.”  To which I’ll I usually say, “Welcome to New York, it’s a walking city.” 

A couple of weeks ago my old bike was getting fixed and my new bike hadn’t yet arrived, so unfortunately I found myself walking, taking the subway, or hailing a cab.  Not only did that hurt my wallet, it really hurt my legs.  I’m not used to walking and I found myself chafed and tired by the end of the week.  Oddly enough when talking with my co-worker Wallace he made the same observation.  Walking is hard and the last time he had to do it, he too got tired.  You see, Wallace and I both bike from door to door most places we go, and walk very little.  Which made me wonder, “Does it require less energy to bike than to walk?”  And the answer, somewhat surprisingly, is yes, much less.  

A bicycle is perhaps the world’s most energy efficient device and it takes roughly 1/3 the energy to bike than it does to walk the same distance. According to this chart from the Worldwatch institute, biking uses just 35 calories per passenger mile, compared to 100 calories by foot (and 1,860 by car). 

The book Comparative Biomechanics says, “legged locomotion…wins no prizes for efficiency.  At 4.5 miles per hour, going a given distance by cycling takes 2.2 times less energy than walking.  At 9 miles an hour, cycling takes 3.7 times less energy than running. Put another way, investing 15 watts of metabolic input per kilogram of body weight can move you at 19 miles per hour if cycling, but only 9 miles per hour if running.”  The problem is our limbs “reciprocate rather than rotate” and the back and forth motion requires repeatedly starting and stopping the legs.  That’s why when you “add a bicycle to a person you reduce threefold the work needed to go a given distance.”

The chart below shows the calories burnt per pound per minute for different exercises.  A person biking 15 mph burns roughly the same calories as someone walking at 4.5 mph.  This means that expending the same energy over the same time you can bike over three times further cycling than walking.

When I used to take transit to work, I walked .2 miles from Bleecker St to W4th, and then .7 miles from Penn Station to 37th and 11th Avenue.  Walking .9 miles at 4.5 mph takes 12 minutes and burns 109.4 calories.  Biking the 2.3 miles from Bleecker St. to work at 15 mph would take 9 minutes of actual cycling, and burn 85.6 calories.  For this commute, I actually burned fewer calories by biking the full distance.  

Now I realize I had a very short commute to begin with, but there are many people that walk about a mile each way using transit but live within 3 miles from their place of work.  A person living in Chelsea and working on the Upper East Side, for example, would probably burn less energy biking to work.  Someone living in Williamsburg or Greenpoint and working in Downtown Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan, can choose a one transfer commute that would require a lot of walking, or a quick 3 mile bicycle ride.  I’m not trying to say that biking isn’t good for you, it’s just that you’re not going to be burning a lot of calories biking on flat ground for less than 5 miles.  In fact, in some cases you’ll probably burn less (and sweat less) than if you walk and take transit. 

Finally, not only are you expending less energy, but you are traveling in a much more pleasant way. When biking at slow speeds you generate a nice breeze without raising your heart rate or breaking a sweat.  Compare that to waiting underground for the subway in August, then cramming into a packed car filled with similarly sweaty and stinky straphangers.  And you say you’ll sweat more on a bike?  Uh, I think not.

Picture of me, sweaty & angry waiting for the subway in July

Most people believe that it its much more dangerous to bike in New York than in other parts of the country, but after reading my friend’s article about biking in Chattanooga, I’m no longer convinced.  True our traffic is horrendous, our drivers are aggressive, and the streets are teeming with oblivious pedestrians, but there are several reasons why its actually safer to bike here in New York.

1.  Speed Kills 

The city-wide speed limit is 30 MPH when not otherwise posted, which is lower than in many car-dependent urban/suburban neighborhoods in this country. Though a recent Transportation Alternatives study shows that this limit is often broken, I don’t think speeding is a condition unique to New York.  I’d much rather take my chances with a New York driver going 45 in a 30, than a Charlotte driver going 60 in a 45.

2. Pedestrians are everywhere

Have you ever walked anywhere in Miami?  Of course you haven’t, why would you? I have, and there is nobody around.  No sidewalks and no pedestrians.  I had to run up to a car stopped at a light to ask directions.  The fact that our streets and sidewalks actually have people on them is the reason speeding isn’t even a worse problem. Granted, our cabbies drive like maniacs, but nobody actually wants to run someone over.  And to avoid mowing down a Tucson Tourist in a turquoise t-shirt,  cabs have to reduce their speeds, especially at intersections.  While jay-walking pedestrians are extremely irritating to cyclists, the vast numbers of peds is one of the biggest reasons we are safer here.  Cars don’t really rule the road, they are used to yielding and waiting, not barreling down empty streets.   

3. When traffic is at its worst, cycling can be at its best.

It’s hard to get hit by a car that is not moving.  Last summer I had some Jersey Jerk in a SUV nearly hit me, then make fun of me for riding a bike. Two blocks later, I breezed past him, gave him the finger, and left him stuck in gridlock.  While there are dangers such as opening doors, jay-walkers, or other cyclists, the best part about heavy traffic is not being able to be hit by a moving 2-ton vehicle.  

4. The Grid is Great.

An abundance of one-way streets and a predictable grid make it a safer place for cycling.  Most of the intersections are easy to quickly understand and navigate, and the “no right turn” policy limits conflict.  Even better that the few odd intersections caused by Broadway crossings are receiving special treatment to make them even safer.

5. Bright Lights Shining

I’ll take biking in NYC over biking on the median of a winding country road any day of the week, and especially at night.  Most streets are extremely well lit at night, and provide excellent visibility for both cyclist and motorist.  While the light pollution may limit our ability to see the stars, it makes New York a great place for night riding (bike lights required by law).

6. Bike markings are everywhere.

The expanding network of lanes, along with pavement markings, and guide signs, are forcing the motorist to understand that they must share the road.  Other cities have programs for installing bike lanes, but the ambitious 200-miles of lanes in 3 years is unprecedented in its scale.

So that’s it.  I made an effort to try to pull some statistics to back up my hypothesis, but it is extremely difficult to find bike accident data by city. Most of the numbers are aggregated to state levels, and bike accidents tend to be underreported anyway. Using bike fatalities alone is a very weak indicator because of the variability of deaths from year to year.  Moreover, the amount of actual bike rider-ship is very difficult to find, as bike commuting is lumped with walking in the US American Community Survey.  

But despite those disclaimers, I do have two down and dirty numbers:

1.  The rate of bicycle fatalities in New York City (2.8 per 1M) is similar to the national rate (2.7 per 1M), even though we have almost four times as many people that bike or walk to work (11% in NYC vs 3% in US).  This claim comes from a 2005 City report on bike fatalaties and injuries.  

2. Commuter cycling increased 35% from 2007 to 2008 and doubled over the last six years, yet the fatality rate has remained within the same range. There were 22 bicycle deaths in 2002 and 23 in 2007.  In August 2002, there were 3,265 bikers crossing the East River Bridges or riding the Staten Island Ferry.  In August 2007, there were 7,005. The more people that cycle, the safer it gets for everybody.

1.  It’s flat between where you live and where you work.  Good news New Yorkers, you live in a very flat city.  Not quite Amsterdam, but pretty darn flat.  Unless you live in Washington Heights, Morningside Heights, or somewhere else with Heights in the name, you likely have nothing but smooth flat sailing for your journey to work.  This is not to say that you shouldn’t bike if you live somewhere hilly, but if it’s flat it makes it easier.  I was out in San Francisco in September, and well, let me just say that I HEART NY.

2. You live more than .5 miles and less than 5 miles from your work.  Again, this is good news for many in New York.  Our city is very compact and in most cases the distances are not vast.  Even inter-borough trips can often be less than 5 miles.  Daily biking is a tough sell for people who work from home (zero miles) or live within a short 15-20 minute walk from their work.   They are usually happy getting around on foot. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve spoken to people that live 8 or 10 miles from their workplace, and its hard to convince them to make such a long trek each day.  Trips greater than 5 miles are certainly doable (a few guys in my office make long commutes by bike), but they’re definitely a bit more strenuous.  A bike trip of up to 5 miles can be completed at a leisurely pace in 30-40 minutes and is often faster than taking public transportation for the same distance.  Check out www.ridethecity.com to determine your distance, time and best route.

3. You live in Manhattan and work somewhere crosstown from where you live.  I love the New York subway system, but face it, its very limited for cross town trips. Whereas the Paris subway system is a web that can easily connect you to almost any point in the city, our system heavily favors north-south routes.  Oh, you could take a crosstown bus, but then again you could also hop to work on one foot.  A bike can quickly shoot you across town and get you there much, much faster than public transit.  This same logic applies for people that live in Brooklyn but work in Western Queens (or vice-versa).

4.  You live in a part of town inconvenient for public transit.  Think the far west side, the deep Lower East Side, Yorkville, western Astoria, Greenpoint.  There are many densely populated places in the city that require long, long walks to the subway.  I can think of no worse commute than walking 20 minutes from York Ave just to hop on a congested 456 train.  My heart goes out to you folks.

5. You live and work near a protected bike lane or a Greenway.  Live in the West Village and work in Chelsea?  Hop on the Hudson River greenway and have a safe and scenic ride.  Don’t want to go out of your way?  Bike on the protected bike lane being installed on 8th avenue and return home on the pioneering 9th avenue protected lane.  The city just announced a redesign for Broadway, so soon someone living in South Harlem can travel through Central Park then down a protected and/or high visibility lane along Broadway all the way through Times Square to Herald Square. Sweet. More and more protected or painted lanes are going in each day and the network of regular bike lanes is expanding at an even more rapid pace.  For a New York City Bike Map click here  (The 2009 map should be up shortly.) 

So that’s my basic guide.  Any other ideas about what makes for a safe, convenient, and easy bike commute?  Please litter my comments page, it’s feeling neglected.