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Commutes count, and we counted them – it’s what we love to do. This year’s Global Bike to Work Day racked up a mighty 3.3 million miles across the roads of 170 countries.
In one day, riders from around the world offset 1,580 tons of carbon emissions. That’s more than if every adult and child in Stockholm somehow all had cars and just happened to lock their keys inside with the engines running for half an hour.
Over a billion data points were added to Strava Metro’s dataset, strengthening an already robust tool that transportation departments in cities like London, Los Angeles, Sydney plus over 100 others are using to not only make better infrastructure, but more of it.
It took 180,539 riders with a median trip time of 43 minutes to make such a big impact, and that got us to thinking: What if every day were Bike to Work Day?
That’s a combined 858 million miles ridden over the course of a year, which means if we stacked all our commutes end to end, we could complete a cycle relay race to Jupiter and back (theoretically speaking). By covering those miles by bike instead of by car, we would spare our atmosphere an estimated 410,800 tons of carbon emissions – equal to the entire city of Los Angeles leaving their cars idling nonstop for almost a day and a half.
If we chose to sit behind the handlebars each day to feel the wind rushing over our helmets instead of getting behind the wheel just to get stuck in rush hour traffic, we’d each accumulate 15.52 days of saddle time annually. We’d be fitter, healthier and, suffice to say, happier people.
The reduction of cars on the road would make streets cleaner, quieter and safer, too. As the number of commutes by bike grew ever larger, so would encouragement to build more facilities for non-motorized traffic. And with over a billion new data points bolstering Strava Metro daily thanks to your uploads, your voice for improvements would be louder than ever.
The best part is that this future can happen. Global Bike to Work Day shows that our commutes count, and we can make sure they keep on counting. From a quick pedal over to the store to taking the scenic route into the office on a sunny morning, every ride uploaded to Strava makes a difference. All we have to do is throw a leg over our bikes and keep the wheels turning.