Coca-Cola, A Healthy Drink for Bike-sharing

The bike-sharing world was all abuzz in August with the cite in The Bike-sharing Blog about the study in The British Medical Journal that used data from Bicing in Barcelona to conclude that "bike-sharing saves lives."  This study was funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation which has as one of its missions: "to support access to exercise, physical activity and nutritional education programs, programs that motivate behavior modification, and programs that encourage lifestyle/behavioral changes." The Foundation continues to fund TAPAS (Transportation, Air Pollution and Physical Activities) which will oversee similar studies on the health benefits of bike-sharing in Paris, Copenhagen, Basel, Warsaw and Prague. It is very worthwhile that these benefits are substantiated with scholarly studies.


It is ironic though, that these studies are funded by a company which makes the high sugar content soft drinks that are a major cause of the obesity and type II diabetes from which many populations in the world are suffering. Eradication of these conditions is often cited as one of the goals of the operators of bike sharing systems.


We at The Bike-sharing Blog will update you with the findings of these new studies as they are available. Oh, yes share a Coke with a friend!


image: World of Coca-Cola


Russell Meddin    bikesharephiladelphia.org

Bike-sharing Saves Lives

A new report in The British Medical Journal provides more analysis that confirms: bike-sharing saves lives. For this study, titled "The health risks and benefits of cycling in urban environments compared with car use: health impact assessment study" by David Rojas-Rueda, Audrey de Nazelle, Marko Tainio, and Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, the authors surveyed 181,982 Bicing subscribers in Barcelona and found "[c]ompared with car users the estimated annual change in mortality of the Barcelona residents using Bicing (n=181,982) was 0.03 deaths from road traffic incidents and 0.13 deaths from air pollution. As a result of physical activity, 12.46 deaths were avoided (benefit:risk ratio 77). The annual number of deaths avoided was 12.28. As a result of journeys by Bicing, annual carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by an estimated 9,062,344 kg." In other words, bike-sharing is good for you and the air we breathe.

Bike-sharing services are usually implemented by transport agencies. With research such as this, it shows that bike-sharing is an interdisciplinary matter and therefore should garner further cooperation by public health agencies as some jurisdictions already have begun.

image credit: Barcelona attractions

Public Health Benefits of Bike-sharing

Recently, the City of Paris gave out medals to the most prolific users of Vélib’ since the system began on July 15, 2007. The “gold medal” was awarded to William, a 40 year old with 3,813 trips. Peter, another 40 year old with 3,774 trips of pedaling, won the silver medal and Thierry, the youngster at 29, snagged the bronze with 3,692 trips on Paris’ grey bikes. To achieve this quantity of trips, the medalists were using Vélib’ at least 5 times each day.

These individuals exemplify the health benefits of bike-sharing and of cycling in general. The men are now in great physical shape. William lost 15 pounds pushing pedals in Paris. (Try to say that ten times fast.

Their accomplishment also points to the healthiness of particular bike-sharing programs. A key factor in a healthy system is the number of usages of bikes per day. Paris, with the help of these guys, has usages 5 to 7 times a day. Lyon averages 7 times a day. Montréal within a few weeks of its launch had 3.5 usages a day. Barcelona tops all with an average of 10 usages per bike per day with spikes of 20 per day on beautiful beach days!

source and image: Velib et Moi - Le Blog

Russell Meddin bikesharephiladelphia.org