Ten Reasons To Ride To Work
Added on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Ten Reasons To Ride To Work
National Ride To Work Day provides us here at Insidebikes with the excuse to get all smug about the benefits of biking as we ponder the fate of all those car confined commuters clogging up our nation’s arterial routes! So it’s with some glee that we present our Top Ten Reasons To Ride To Work
* National Ride To Work Day, part of International Ride To Work Day, takes place on Monday June 20th. For further details visit http://ridetoworkday.co.uk, find it on Facebook or follow it on Twitter.
Bikes are less taxing
Accountants get paid small fortunes to advise the well-heeled on how to organise their dosh so it’s maximally “tax efficient.” We’ll offer this bit of advice for the princely sum of nowt. Don’t drive a car, ride a bike. Motorcycle road tax (or for pedants out there, Vehicle Excise Duty) start at just £16 annually for bikes below 150cc and even the top rate for a tarmac eating 600cc machine comes in at a wallet friendly £74.00. The top rate for a new motor? £1,000. The rates are complicated now that they’re based on CO2 emissions and registrations (click here to view) but the briefest of glances reveal that bikes are the best bet for those who don’t want to unduly swell government coffers!
Biking’s Greener Than Shrek’s Snot
Bikes love the planet by hating carbon dioxide emissions. Small motorcycles often pump out less than 80g/km of Co2, roughly half that of a Ford Focus Zetec 1.6. The Motorcycle Industry Association calculates that the Co2 emissions of new motorcycles are about 30% lower than that of the motor car.
Ride and Park
It’s not just a smaller carbon footprint but a physical one that benefits bikes. Some cars might like to label themselves as compact but they’re positive behemoths compared to your average motorcycle. Small is beautiful and nowhere more so than in town and city where parking is at a premium. Where one parking space equals one car, it equals five bikes. That simple fact could mean that, if more rode instead of drove, then valuable parking spots would be freed. It would minimise the need for car commuters to cruise for availability, gobbling up fuel and spewing out Co2 and looking like some kerb crawling na’er do well! On top of that, motorcycle parking tends to be free and even where it isn’t it is often cheaper.
Getting Somewhere Fast
Were you to fly over an UK city on any working day you’d see millions of people getting nowhere fast. They’re there, sat stuck in tin boxes on motorways, A-roads and ring roads, battling against fellow commuters and the dreaded school runs. They’re a seething cauldron of combustible road rage, constantly lane-changing not because they think it’ll get them anywhere but, well, you know, it’s something to do. Thankfully they can’t clock the smug faces of bikers who cut through traffic like a warm knife through butter. Probably best not to tell them that journey times by bike can be up to 48% quicker (source: MCI). It won’t humour them.
Quick Save
Not only can bikes get you there quicker they can do so for less. Bikes are typically cheaper to tax, insure and run. Take petrol. As well all know its price has risen faster than the thermometer in Beelzebub’s front room. What do you pay? The best part of £1.40 a litre? So you want to squeeze every last drop from that precious juice. Think, then, that a small bike or scooter – ideal for commuting – can rack up over 100mpg. At that rate you could journey between Birmingham and Manchester on a gallon. If you drive or use public transport you can see how much you might save if you switched to a bike compare your current costs against going by motorcycle using this handy Travel Savings Calculator.
Relieves Congestion – Fast
Like an intravenous dose of some super-potent sinus treatment, biking relives congestion – fast. For starters bikes are smaller than cars so they take up far less road space. Whilst cars sit idling, swallowing petrol and burping out noxious fumes, bikes keep on moving. But not only can bike help prevent congestion itself, when they come across it they can beat it. Please note this may annoy car drivers but, as they say in France, c’est la vie!
The Social Network
Bikers are social beings. They’re ever keen to acknowledge fellow riders and appreciative of their machines. Whilst drivers will park up for a break and simply wolf down a Ginsters, bikers will often congregate for a natter and a brew. It’s a social network, a community, a club for which the only membership requirement is ownership of two-wheeled transport. Bikes are more than just a mode of transport, a way of getting to work, they’re a way of life.
Safety and Numbers
One reason not to bike which is so often trotted out is that they’re not safe. Leaving aside the not-so-small matter of Carole Nash research consistently showing that most bike accidents are caused by drivers, biking is now much safer. The MCI reports that over the past ten years the risk of rider injury has fallen by some 30%. This is despite there now being 1.2 million regular motorcycle riders. Most journeys by motorcycle are now not for leisure and pleasure, with 60% being undertaken for commuting, utility and practical purposes.
Bus Pains
Poor old public transport suffers from a bad reputation. But there’s a reason for that. It’s not cheap, not always there when you need it and, despite innovations like bus lanes, guided busways and other bus rapid transit innovations, not always reliable. On the other hand a well maintained bike can get you from A to B and onwards through C to Z quickly and cheaply. They’re doubly useful to country dwellers reliant upon infrequent bus services or still suffering from Dr. Beeching’s decimation of the branch line system. Of course, travel by bike and you’ll no longer have an excuse for being late to work!
Premium Grate Numbers
Car insurance rates are soaring at a rate that grates with drivers. The same is not true when it comes to bike insurance. Last year Carole Nash released research which showed that average motorcycle premiums had actually fallen across most bike categories whilst the AA had reported car insurance rates had recorded record growth.
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