Biking

More Biking Fights Climate Change

3% increase would save 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.

By - Mar 3rd, 2017 12:38 pm
Green pavement markings in bike lanes can be used to highlight conflict points in mixing zones where motor vehicle and bicycle traffic cross.

Green pavement markings in bike lanes can be used to highlight conflict points in mixing zones where motor vehicle and bicycle traffic cross.

Last week several places in Wisconsin and around the country broke records for warm temperatures several days in a row. Many places also recorded their single warmest winter day ever.

This caused a lot of us who are not winter cyclists to pump up the tires, oil the chain and get out there. And that may be one of the best things we can do to combat global climate change.

Of course, a lot of folks are like me – avid skiers as well as cyclists. Rather than perfect cycling weather in February we’d rather have snow. In fact, I’m sure more than one person reading this had trained for the 2017 American Birkebeiner in Cable that was cancelled due to the unseasonably warm weather.

There is a difference between weather and climate – weather is what happened last week, while climate is what happened over the last century. So, while it is possible that next February could be the snowiest on record, the facts on long-term climate change are literally undeniable.

In fact, according to NASA, January 2017 was the third hottest in the 137 years of modern record keeping. And the hottest January on record was 2016. The second hottest was 2007. When the statistics are in for February they are likely to show similar results.

The upshot of all this includes coastal cities that are facing extinction while droughts, hurricanes, heat waves, floods and other extreme weather are all increasing in intensity and frequency. And that means huge costs in lives, property and disruptions to economies and cultures. The Birkie is just one small example of the economic and cultural disasters that are happening right now and that will only increase as the planet warms due to human activity.

And, yet, the current administrations in Washington and Madison are filled with people who deny the climate science. They have even washed mentions of climate change from their websites. Pretty amazing and awfully discouraging.

So, with our governments in the hands of climate deniers what can individuals do? Well, one obvious solution is to bike more. A recent study by UW Madison professor Maggie Grabow found that if 20% of short car trips in Madison and Milwaukee were replaced with cycling that would save almost 58,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted to the atmosphere every year.

And according to the Rails to Trails Conservancy increasing the mode share of walking and cycling by just 3% would save 33 million tons of carbon dioxide a year nationally.

Global climate change is the most serious threat the planet faces and yet our national and state governments have their heads planted firmly and deeply in the sand. Somewhat happily, one of the best things we can do to fight this is to do more of what we love to do already: ride a bicycle.

Dave Cieslewicz is the executive director of the Wisconsin Bike Fed and former mayor of the city of Madison.

4 thoughts on “Biking: More Biking Fights Climate Change”

  1. Jason says:

    It seems a lot of the bike lanes I see around Milwaukee are exclusive to downtown and the lower and upper east sides, why is that? Why can not the rest of the city citizens participate in this collective solution to saving the earth?

  2. Vincent Hanna says:

    Because conservatives want everyone to drive a car.

  3. Wisconsin Conservative Digest says:

    Bike lanes on busy roads are waste of money and kill people. We have lost 4 friends. We ride almost very day, year around. more bike paths when the bikers find ways to pay for them

  4. Diane says:

    Wisconsin Conservative Digest, if we follow your logic we shouldn’t have pedestrian crosswalks on busy roads either. It’s careless, reckless, and/or distracted drivers who kill people, not the fact that other forms of transportation exist on those busy roads.

Leave a Reply

You must be an Urban Milwaukee member to leave a comment. Membership, which includes a host of perks, including an ad-free website, tickets to marquee events like Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Florentine Opera, a better photo browser and access to members-only, behind-the-scenes tours, starts at $9/month. Learn more.

Join now and cancel anytime.

If you are an existing member, sign-in to leave a comment.

Have questions? Need to report an error? Contact Us