The Best Way to Commute: 5 km - 20 km

By Madison De Silva

January, 2023





Have you ever wanted to become healthier by adopting a more active lifestyle? One way this can be done is by incorporating a bike ride into your daily routine! If you live between 5 km to 20 km from your school or place of work, you may want to adopt this way of commuting as an alternative to driving. Biking can benefit you emotionally, physically and also provides note-worthy environmental benefits.


Emotional Benefits of Biking:

  • Mood booster
  • Increases your productivity
  • Reduces feelings of anxiety
  • It helps you sleep better
  • Improves your memory

Physical Benefits of Biking::

  • Improves your cardiovascular health
  • Increases your levels of flexibility
  • Improves and maintains your levels of mobility
  • Lowers levels of body fat
  • Increases bone strength

Physical Benefits of Biking::

  • Decreases the amount of greenhouse gas emissions you produce
  • Reduces congestion and noise pollution
  • Saves ecological areas from new development
  • Reduces the need for paved areas like roads and parking spaces

We are fortunate enough to live in a province where we experience seasons with weather ranging from summer warmth to winter chill. This presents a unique challenge to bikers across Canada. We recommend you begin to practice biking during the warmer months and refrain from biking long distances under dangerous weather conditions. Regardless of whether you are facing challenging weather conditions or if you find the task of biking all the way to work to be daunting, there are other commuting options such as biking to a bus stop or friend's house to carpool or choosing to carpool the entire way!!!


If you are interested in biking, stay tuned for upcoming articles to hear from bikers in our community, learn how to prepare for your bike ride, and how to navigate your commute using apps such as the SmartCommute.ca app .


Challenge:

Begin by going on a bike ride for 10 minutes a day. Once you have done this for a week, increase the time on your bike by 5 minutes. Continue to do this weekly until you are riding your bike for an hour daily.