Bike hire schemes may save lives |
A study on the Barcelona bike hire scheme suggests averted carbon emissions saves 12 lives each year London's bike hire scheme has many benefits, some widely acknowledged, others less so. But could it be saving lives by decreasing air pollution? Researchers studying the Barcelona bike hire scheme – known as Bicing – found that the cyclists had helped to avert 9,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, which they believe has saved more than 12 lives each year the scheme has operated. The Spanish-led research team found that for those using the Bicing scheme there was an estimated 0.03 extra cyclists' deaths each year from traffic accidents and an extra 0.13 cyclists' deaths from air pollution compared with an overall saving of 12.48 lives through the benefits of physical activity. This study did not provide a calculation for the lives saved in the non-cycling population but it stands to reason that they would also benefit from the improved air quality. Article by Frederika Whitehead stands for the Guardian, 5/8/11.
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Ποδηλατοβόλτες, Εκδηλώσεις |
Ποδηλατοβόλτες, Εκδηλώσεις |
"What do you call a cyclist who doesn't wear a helmet? An organ donor."
"All creatures who have ever walked have wished that they might fly. With highwheelers a flesh and blood man can hitch wings to his feet."
"Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world."
"Things look different from the seat of a bike carrying a sleeping bag with a cold beer tucked inside."
"The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash."
"You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you're having a good day."
"The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked."
"Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia."
"If we all, mountain bikers, cyclists, multinational companies, Jo Public, respected the land like old civilizations we wouldn't get so many punctures. Earth's revenge."
"Messengers and mountain bikers share a common chromosome."
"The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard."
"Cycling is unique. No other sport lets you go like that - where there's only the bike left to hold you up. If you ran as hard, you'd fall over. Your legs wouldn't support you."
"Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm."
"Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling."
"The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community."
"The bicycle will accomplish more for women's sensible dress than all the reform movements that have ever been waged."
"A bicycle does get you there and more... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. And getting there is all the fun."
"For instance, the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon."
"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart."
"Why should anyone steal a watch when he could steal a bicycle?"
"Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed and stable a horse, had by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life."
"It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century"
"The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine."
"The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets."
"The three largest bike sharing schemes in Europe are used for trips equivalent to going around the world ten times each day"
"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."
"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race"
"Poetry is the development of a shining bicycle... This is a never ending trip."
"There are two types of mayors: those who have bikesharing and those who want bikesharing."
"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike."