Cycling benefits your mental health because the circular, regular movement is relaxing without putting sudden stresses on your joints. This has been shown to regulate your emotions as well as your breathing and movements. Also, moderate exercise like cycling is known to help with mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Also, nothing benefits your psyche like fresh air and beautiful scenery, plenty of which you will get on a bike ride.

A leisurely bike ride of 10 mph or less will burn fewer calories than cycling faster in a 20-minute period. A 150-lb. person biking at less than 10 mph will burn 90 calories in 20 minutes, according to the Calories Burned Biking website. By increasing the speed to 12 to 14 mph, that person will burn 198 calories in 20 minutes. A 200-lb. person will burn 120 calories with a leisurely bike ride, but traveling between 12 and 14 mph will burn 264 calories in 20 minutes. A 240-lb. person will burn 144 calories in 20 minutes, while more vigorous biking will burn 317 calories.

According to the British Medical Association, cycling just 20 miles a week can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 50%. A major study of 10,000 civil servants suggested that those who cycled 20 miles over the period of a week were half as likely to suffer heart disease as their non-cycling colleagues.

But beyond the personal advantages, the real benefit of committing to the morning cycle commute is rooted in energy use. Each day we consume odious amounts of energy transporting people a few miles to work. While this may seem like the most expedient option, it’s not the most sustainable in the long term. There must come a time when we take steps to limit our environmental footprint – and biking is one of the best ways to do so. It’s green, emissions free, and the only byproduct is a stronger set of thighs.

Cycling makes the heart pound in a steady manner and helps improve cardio-vascular fitness.  Studies have shown that cycling to work will increase cardiovascular fitness by 3-7%. Cycling uses the largest muscle groups the legs, raising heart rate to benefit stamina and fitness.

Exercise is known to reduce stress and incorporating biking can reduce stress in several different ways. Biking to work reduces the stress of sitting in a traffic jam, being late to work because of hold ups, or the financial stress to maintain your car.

Cycling generally does not involve a steep learning curve and a lot of expensive equipment (beyond a bike and a helmet, other cycling gear is optional). In most areas, you can cycle year-round, and build it into your daily routine by cycling to work and to do errands. Most people can continue cycling indefinitely. This means that you will be more likely to stick with cycling long-term, and lead a healthier life.

But to those of us who join, bicycling as a preferred form of transportation feels almost like a secret club, the key to a more balanced, healthy day and a way to live more lightly on our planet. It is a choice to spend time outside in the fresh air, using the power of our bodies to get around, rather than being trapped in traffic, locked away from the natural world and our fellow human beings.

One of the most important things a bicycle can build is community, as anyone who has spent time at a place like Bike Works in Columbia City can tell you. Just by riding a bicycle, you learn more about the place you live. The way we get around our neighborhoods has a lot to do with how safe we feel, who we see regularly; basically, our sense of place.

Commuting to work by bicycle has many health, economic, and environmental benefits. Riding your bike to work can increase your physical activity and promote a healthier lifestyle through reduced risks of heart disease and stroke and improved mental health. Bicycling to work can also eliminate emissions that otherwise would have been produced when driving, overall reducing harmful effects on the environment.

Most people do not consider commuting to work by bicycle a viable transportation option because of preconceived ideas about what would be involved. Only those who have tried it really know how fast, easy, fun and inexpensive bike commuting can be. Unfortunately, few people try bike commuting and less than 1% of the population do it on a regular basis.

Exercise in general has been shown to decrease anxiety and stress levels, and bicycling is a fun way to exercise. Keeping yourself out of traffic jams will also help in reducing stress.

Cycling is a great way to exercise and achieve healthy levels of fitness and activity. It is also fun, cheap and good for the environment. Using your bike to get around is a great way to stay active as part of your everyday activities. Cycling is a healthy, low-impact exercise that can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from young children to older adults.

Cycling is non-polluting and can help us breathe easier. Much of the pollutants and irritants in the air are the result of fossil fuel emissions and can cause serious health problems, including asthma, irritation of the lungs, bronchitis, pneumonia, decreased resistance to respiratory infections, and even early death. These health risks are accentuated in children. When people ride bikes instead of driving cars, everyone's health benefits.

What we don't notice is that if you were to spend an hour a day riding a bike rather than being sedentary and driving a car there's a cost to that sedentary time. It's silent, it doesn't get noticed. What we're talking about here is shifting the balance from that invisible danger of sitting still towards the positive health benefits of cycling.

Unlike a vehicle, bicycle expenses are minimal. Once you've paid for the initial price of the bike and gear there are few costs for its upkeep. Worries over gas prices, tags, taxes and toll fees are not important when using a bike for your main source of transportation to and from work.

Commuting by bike reduces pollution that causes asthma and bronchitis. Cycling instead of driving will reduce the 38 million tonnes of carbon produced each year by British motorists and improve the quality of your air. Surprisingly, a cyclist is also less exposed to air pollution than a commuting motorist.

The benefits to the body’s immune system that can be gained from moderate activity such as cycling are well documented. Did you know that your immune system can be considerably strengthened by cycling? It can also protect you against some cancers, increasing the fight against cells that cause tumors.

Carfree street events take the fun of a street fair and add to it by giving city residents a chance to explore their neighborhoods on foot or on bikes, sometimes for the first time. In places where neighbors live in fear of violence, carfree street events are a great way to take back the street for families.

Mental health conditions like depression, stress and anxiety can be reduced by regular bike riding.

Cycling reduces the risk of arthritis (or inflammation of the joints) caused by worn out cartilage. Exercises like running put more stress on joints and break down cartilage, especially in the knees. Cycling is gentler on joints and can actually strengthen them because the cycling motion provides nourishment that builds up cartilage.

Pedal power is the transfer of energy from a human source through the use of a foot pedal and crank system. This technology is most commonly used for transportation and has been used to propel bicycles for over a hundred years.

Bicycle transportation is good for a lot of things — it’s healthy, it’s green, it’s quiet, it’s fun, it builds community. It also makes financial sense, and the magnitude of bicycling’s economic impact gets far less attention than it deserves.

“A big pull here is going to be promoting the lifestyle of cycling and everything that comes along with it—the healthy lifestyle, the atmosphere, the camaraderie,” he said. “The whole goal is to promote that feeling of community and unity.”

In many ways cycling may be better than some other forms of exercise in relieving stress.

A qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement, means any employer, if they chose to do so, may provide a reimbursement of up to $20 per month for reasonable expenses incurred by the employee in conjunction with their commute to work by bike.

A group of Muslim and Jewish cyclists found common ground Sunday on Chicago pavement as they biked across the city from a downtown mosque to a North Side synagogue.

Less burning of fossil fuels (gasoline) reduces the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global climate change. Human pedaling is an infinitely renewable resource; gasoline is not.

Governing's analysis of health and census data found a strong correlation between a metro area's overweight/obesity rates and the portion of a workforce walking or biking to work.

Cycling (and other exercise) provides nourishment that discs in the spine need for development. The large muscles in the back develop and become stronger. And cycling strengthens the small muscles that support individual vertebrae.

Cycling can help to protect you from serious diseases like stroke, heart attack, some cancers, depression, diabetes, obesity and arthritis.

Biking to work reduces damage to the environment and leaves very little carbon footprint. Next to walking, biking to work excludes emissions, oil leaks and other unfriendly pollutants.

To get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we should take a close look at the bike as a potential solution.

Fewer people cycle per capita in the U.S. than in many other parts of the world, and the U.S. is a leader in petroleum consumption.