Via Bicycle Law<\/p>\n
What if there was something you could do to improve your health and fitness, save money, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, and reduce your carbon footprint, all at the same time\u2014would you do it?<\/p>\n
\n\tMaybe that\u2019s a bit of preaching to the choir here, but that\u2019s the idea behind The 1-Mile Solution<\/a>. As Andy Cline explains,<\/p>\n \n\t\tThe idea is simple: Find your home on a map…Draw a circle with a 1-mile radius around your home. Try to replace one car trip per week within that circle by riding a bicycle or walking. At an easy riding pace you can travel one mile on a bicycle in about seven minutes. Walking takes about 20 minutes at an easy pace.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \n\tNow I know Legally Speaking readers generally put in their miles every week, but the concept here is a little different. According to Two-Wheeled Wonder<\/a>, an article published in the March\/April issue of Sierra, \u201cnearly half of all trips in the United States are three miles or less; more than a quarter are less than a mile.\u201d As the Sierra article notes,<\/p>\n \n\t\tShort car trips are, naturally, the easiest to replace with a bike trip (or even walking). Mile for mile, they are also the most polluting. Engines running cold produce four times the carbon monoxide and twice the volatile organic compounds of engines running hot. And smog-forming (and carcinogenic) VOCs continue to evaporate from an engine until it cools off, whether the engine\u2019s been running for five minutes or five hours.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \n\tDiscussing the Impact of the 1-Mile Solution<\/a>. Andy Cline cites research from Professor Chandra Bhat<\/a> that reveals that \u201cthe transportation sector accounts for about one-third of all human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Within that sector, travel by personal vehicles accounts for nearly two-thirds of those emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith the 1-Mile Solution, Cline proposes a simple means for each of us to reduce the impacts associated with these short trips\u2014once a week, make a trip make a trip of one mile or less from your home by bicycle, or on foot, rather than by car. As Cline observes,<\/p>\n \n\t\tYou start out small. You commit to one trip per week by foot or on a bicycle within a 1-mile radius of home. One mile is not far. At a modest pace it\u2019s a 20-minute walk (great exercise!) or a 6-minute bicycle ride. The idea, of course, is that we\u2019ll all see how easy one mile is and then begin replacing two trips per week. Then three. And soon enough, we\u2019re routinely walking and riding within the circle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \n\tSome of us are already making our short trips by bike; others have yet to make the change, or have friends and family who make all of their short trips by car. Because it\u2019s so easy, the 1-Mile Solution is the kind of change that almost anybody can incorporate into their lives. As the year draws to an end, and a new year begins, that\u2019s something to think about.<\/p>\n \n\tWishing all of you a very happy new year,<\/p>\n \n\tBob<\/p>\n \n\t(Research and drafting provided by Rick Bernardi, J.D.)<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tThis article, The 1-Mile Solution<\/a>, originally published on Dec. 31, 2008 on VeloNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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