Friday, February 25, 2011

Unhappy? Take up bike commuting!

The headline intrigued me: Happiness = Work, sleep and bicycles.

Wasn't that a movie starring Julia Roberts?

The UK's Office for National Statistics is trying to assess the well-being of the nation. One of the questions they are asking citizens is, "Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?"

(I'm thinkin' maybe people would be better-off if they didn't have to fund an Office for National Statistics. But that's just the libertarian in me. And something like that could never happen here!!) (But I digress...)

In analyzing their poll results, they found that commuting has a significant impact on how happy people feel. Their conclusion: "A wealth of literature from researchers studying stress and related effects reveals 'persistent and significant costs associated with a long commute through heavy traffic'. By contrast, studies comparing the experiences of commuting by bicycle and car report that cyclists find their mode of transport at least as flexible and convenient as those who use cars, with lower stress and greater feelings of freedom, relaxation and excitement." I'm thinkin' it's not a whole lot different over on this side of the pond.

So - if you want to be happy, DON'T live an hour's drive from where you work, especially if you'll need to share the road with 10,000 other people in the same boat! Live where you can bicycle to work! (My face always hurts from smilin' so much!)

See? They don't need some fancy pencil-pushers to tell 'em that! I could've told 'em for free!

(Story HERE.)

2 comments:

RAC said...

I have not checked in for a couple weeks. Good to be back and reading your witty blogs. However, you might want to scratch the Hitler guy with the round swastika wheels. It is creepy. Just sayin'
Peace.

Bikeboy said...

RAC, your comment about the Hitler guy is reasonable. Certainly no offense was/is intended to anybody... but I can appreciate that it could be misunderstood. I'll give it some serious thought.