We believe bicycling makes America better. Bicycling is a solution to many challenges facing our society today. By helping create safe places to ride and encouraging people to pedal, we’re forming stronger, healthier communities.

Helping improve America

• Our lobbying efforts and Grants Program help develop hundreds of new bike paths, lanes, trails, and programs each year.
• By hosting the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, we’re working to create safe ways for kids to bike to school. This leads to healthier children and lighter traffic.
• Our support of the Bicycle Friendly Communities program (run by the League of American Bicyclists) is inspiring cities and towns to improve their bicycle facilities and programs.
• The Paul David Clark Bicycling Safety Fund supports projects to improve bicycle safety.
• More and better places to ride inspire more people to pedal.
• We’re getting more children on bikes, creating healthier generations.
• Transforming car commuters to bike commuters reduces polluting emissions, so we can all breathe cleaner air.
• People buying bikes support jobs and businesses.
• Active communities have fewer weight-related diseases and lower healthcare costs.
• When people ride bikes, they get to know their neighbors and neighborhoods, creating friendlier communities.

Here are some stats to help you quickly convey the benefits of bicycling.

1. It's time to get kids riding. In just one generation:
   • The percentage of U.S. kids who walk or bike to school has dropped by 70%.
   • Childhood obesity has tripled. Centers for Disease Control
   
   
2. Bicycle commuting beats sitting in traffic.
   • Each U.S. rush-hour auto commuter spends an average of 50 hours a year stuck in traffic. Texas Transportation Institute
   • This costs the U.S. more than $63 billion in lost productivity and wasted fuel. EPA/USDOT’s Best Workplaces for Commuters Briefing, 2005
   
   
3. More cycling means less dependence on foreign oil.
   • 10% of global oil production goes toward fueling America’s cars and trucks. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
   • The U.S. could save 462 millions of gallons of gasoline a year by increasing cycling from 1% to 1.5% of all trips. Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, Bike Traffic, May 2002
   
   
4. Riding a bike is cheaper than driving a car.
   • On a commute of 10 miles, bicyclists save roughly $7.50 and spare the air ½ pound of carbon monoxide emissions. They also burn 350 calories! SmartTrips
   • Based on gas prices of about $3/gallon, the annual cost of owning, operating, and driving a passenger car roughly 15,000 miles is nearly $11,000. (It costs roughly $120 a year to maintain a bike.) American Automobile Association
   
   
5. Biking can help you live longer.
   • Just three hours of bicycling per week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%. League of American Bicyclists
   
   
6. Bicycling is good for the economy.
   • The U.S. bicycle industry sold $6.2 billion in bicycles