Forget the car and save some time

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“Mens sana in corpore sano”
[Juvenal, Roman poet]

May isn’t just National Mental Health Awareness Month (since 1949), it is also National Bike Month (since 1956). Physical Health and Mental Health are joined at the hip and when a lack of time is part of the problem, bike commuting can help.

Mental Health Statistics

over 20% of US adults live with a mental illness.
over 20% of US youth (13-18) have or have suffered from mental illness.

There are over 200 recognized types of mental illness, some light, some short-term, some serious, some long-term. Especially for children, mental illness is often stress-related anxiety. To reduce that stress, the CDC recommends healthy eating, less screen time, and also staying healthy physically.

The daily walk to and from school is an outstanding opportunity for parents to check in on their children and make sure they start the day strong and healthy.

Recommended Daily Activity

“People who are insufficiently active have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to people who are sufficiently active.”
[WHO]

A majority of Americans lack the 15-30 min of Recommended Daily Activity that would come from walking, biking, sports, recreational activity or play. Bay Area leaders seem to think, this problem can be solved by creating more gyms. Are they correct?
A few facts about health:

More than 80% of the world’s adolescent population is insufficiently physically active [WHO].
A majority of Americans don’t move enough.
A majority of Americans seem to be moving towards obesity.
A majority of Americans will have one comorbidity by age 65.
A majority of Americans know more exercising would help.
Only 64 million Americans had a gym membership (2019).
67% of gym members never actually use their membership.
50% of all new gym members quit within the first 6 months.

The pandemic ravaged a group of people with comorbidities. Exercising would have reduced the risk, but exercising in the gym does not seem to be the solution. People, however, do need to run various errands on a daily or weekly schedule. Therefore, Active Transportation is an efficient, cheap, easy, and very natural solution to this epidemic of non-movers.

Daily Trip Statistics

“Where there is a Will, there is a Way”
[from Jacula Pruduntum]

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics promoted a research study about daily trips in the United States in 2021:

Walking Distance (<1 mile): 28%
Bicycle Distance (<3 mile): 52%
eBike Distance (<10 miles): 79%
Public Transportation/Automobile (>10 miles): 21%

These travel statistics were produced from an anonymized national panel of mobile device data from multiple sources. They might still be missing many short-distance trips taken by people without cell phones (e.g., children, homeless, low-income workers, seniors, dog walkers, etc.).

This looks like there is plenty of opportunity for some Active Transportation for people to choose from.

Marchetti’s Constant and Zahavi’s Hypothesis

“What do the citizens of ancient Rome have in common with those of modern Atlanta? The duration of their daily commute: an hour.“
[Bigthink.com]

Whenever human mode of transportation improved, it did not lead to shorter commutes. It only led to greater distance between homes and places of work. This is called Marchetti’s Constant and is based on research done by Yacov Zahavi and Cesare Marchetti.

Marchetti’s Constant recognizes a 1-hour pattern of an average daily commute. According to this theory, no matter the human development in terms of transportation speed, the 30-minute commute time (one way) has never changed.

This is probably due to another human trait based on the perception:

“The grass is always greener on the other side.“

People commute 30 min not because they must, but because they can.

For mental health, people enjoy a little bit of me-time. In general, people don’t mind the 15-20-minute Single-Occupied Vehicle (SOV) commute. Since the grass is always greener on the other side, people deliberately choose jobs 20-30 miles away. Unfortunately, many people think this way, and therefore, we have congested roads; the expected 30-minute car ride quickly exceeds 40 minutes.

“Commuting by car or train makes people feel ‘frustrated, anxious and despondent.’ “
[Dr. David Lewis, International Stress Management Association]

Outgrowing Marchetti through better Infrastructure

Unfortunately due to the rules of Induced Demand, there is no way to outgrow Marchetti’s Constant with better infrastructure. As soon as expensive infrastructure upgrades allow faster travel, people just increase the distance, but never their happiness. To make the happiness formula work, the grass would have to be way greener on the other side.

“Workers with one-hour car commutes must earn 40% more money to have a sense of well-being equal to that of a person who walks or bikes to work.”
[Frey & Stutzer, Swiss economists]

Cities were smaller and denser before but then started to spread out over the last 70 years because of car-centric development. Once we find a form of transportation that gets us to in 30 minutes, there will be people commuting there, too. And telling them there is no grass on Luna will not change that either.

Bike Commuting saves time and money

Cycling to work releases hormones that reduce stress, promote happiness and improve mental health. Cycling to school has been linked to improved memory, better concentration, and more creativity.

There is plenty of research and surveys showing that North American commuters using bicycles for commuting are ‘very satisfied’ with their commute, whereas people with cars and public transit, eventually come to hate theirs.

People, that made bike commuting their preferred option, move their jobs closer into the 5-10 mile range, which would also lead to 20-30 min of commute time.

The biggest disadvantage of the car-centric lifestyle becomes obvious when you add the recommended daily activity or lack thereof into the lifestyle formula. The motorist had 20 min of mental me-time, 20 min of annoyance, even anger, and still needs another 60 min to get to the gym and get their physical and mental health back to normal. All in all that sounds like 140 min of stress or reason to start drinking.

The bike commuter rides for 50-60 min and achieves their recommended Daily Activity, improves their mental and physical health and can relax the rest of the day. So leave the car and save on time, stress, gas, and gym membership.