Taking a trip to the corner store? Leave the car in the garage

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If you want to save your health, money, people’s lives and the planet, the answer is simple — ride a bike for short jaunts.

Ride your bike to work, it's good for you. And make things interesting by snapping pictures of your handlebars while crossing bridges. (Or don't). Photo: Steven Vance (Flickr)

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied 11 metro areas in the Midwest to see what would happen if people stopped using their cars for short trips (five-miles round trip or less).

The results should really be in the next Huffy ad (is Huffy is still around?):

  • Replacing half of the short car trips with bicycle rides during the warmest six months of the year would save approximately $3.8 billion annually from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs for people in the areas studied.
  •  1,100 lives would be saved each year in the areas studied from improved air quality and increased physical activity.

And (surprise!) there are benefits from just moving your body instead of sitting on your behind. Biking and walking could help curb obesity, which study authors called a national epidemic.

The researchers acknowledge Americans’ busy lives and lack of exercise.

“The majority of Americans do not get the recommended minimum level of exercise,” said Maggie Grabow in a prepared statement. Grabow is a Ph.D. candidate at University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of the study.

“In a busy daily schedule, if that exercise can automatically occur while commuting to work, we anticipate a major benefit in stemming the obesity epidemic,” Grabow said.

Researchers presented the study’s findings to the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

So next time you’re heading down the street to grab some wine or return Wedding Crashers, use your bike or your feet.

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