Bicycling

May 14, 2008 12:36 pm

— Friday is “Ride Your Bike to Work Day,” and the observance couldn’t have come at a better time.
One reason, of course, is that with the price of gasoline approaching $4 a gallon, we’ve all been tempted to park our cars.
Another is that bicycling to work would provide us with much needed exercise. In a news release, the Indiana Department of Health noted that biking to work was good for your heart and lungs and could lower your blood pressure.
“Ride Your Bike to Work Day” is sponsored by the Indiana Bicycle Coalition.
Of course, if you do decide to ride your bicycle to work on Friday, it’s important to stay safe.
The health department offers these tips:
• Always wear your helmet. Be sure it covers your forehead and fits properly.
• Ride on the right. Always ride with traffic.
• Obey all traffic laws. Stop at stop signs and stop lights and obey one-way streets.
• Signal and look before turning.
• Ride in a predictable manner. Ride in a straight line. Don’t swerve between parked cars.
• Use head and tail lights at night. Reflectors are not enough.
• Keep your bike in good repair. Have it tuned up by a professional bike mechanic regularly.
• Yield to pedestrians. Pedestrians have the right of way.
• Ride defensively. Follow the rules of the road. In Indiana, the bicycle is a vehicle and has all the rights and responsibilities of other vehicles. This means stopping at stop signs and stop lights, riding on the right side of the road, and signaling for turns.
• Drink before you’re thirsty, eat before you’re hungry. Take along plenty of water. Use sports drinks for longer rides. Snacks to take along include cereal bars, cookies, fig bars and fruit (bananas and apples are best).
The department urges bicyclists to take along identification, money and a repair kit including such things as a spare inner tube and a bicycle pump.
Hoosiers consistently rank low in terms of overall health. We have a reputation as a state filled with overweight couch potatoes.
So it’s good to see the state health department promoting a day to ride your bike to work.
Who knows? Maybe the folks who bike to work on Friday will enjoy themselves so much they’ll get into the habit.
The more cars we can take off the roads each day the better off all of us will be in the long-run. And the exercise will do all of us some good.