Bike For Your Mental Well-Being

In honor of the Bike Walk Week, I thought I’d post some stuff this week about my commuting experience ever since my Buick broke down in March of 2009.

If you don’t care to bike for the money, time, or physical health benefits, then do it for own mental health.

Have you ever noticed that nobody looks happy when they are driving?  Stand by a corner with a stop light and count how many drivers you see smiling.  I can tell you right now so you don’t waste your time: you’ll be lucky to find one.   However, you will see a lot of clenched jaws,  squinted eyes, and flared nostrils.  People look seriously pissed off when they drive.

Just think about yourself for a second: how many times do you curse at other automobiles when you’re driving your car?  You scream it out your windows, mutter it under your breath, or just say it in your mind, but you probably curse at another driver at least once per trip.  It doesn’t matter where you are or how far you are going; we all just have a lot of pent up anger towards other vehicles.

You don’t get that as much with bikes.  Maybe it’s the fact that everybody is out in the open and not shielded by a couple tons of metal, glass, and plastic.  You’re able to make more human connections.  You can greet your fellow riders and give them a heads up if you are passing.  You can actually verbally apologize if you cut somebody off instead of just shrugging your shoulders and waving like an idiot.  A little communication goes a long way.

I think the scenery and ambiance out on the bike trails helps relieve the stress, too.  What would you rather look at while you commute to work in the morning?

This:

Or this:

Still not sure?  Let’s play again.  Would you rather look at this:

Or would you rather look at this:

I know it can be difficult, so let’s try it one last time.  Do you prefer this:

Or would you prefer this:

To me, the choice is simple.  I love biking to work each day not only because it feels great, but it also allows me to avoid the stress and aggravation of driving.  Driving can be a necessity a lot of times, but if I have the option, I prefer to take my bike.

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