Community Bike Paths

The Environmental Benefits of Community Bike Paths There are other additional benefits from having community bike paths and with paths that are landscaped. When walking and biking paths are landscaped utilized by nearby residents, there is an overall sense of community pride, an experience improved air quality, and an overall better health status (Ride This Bike, 2007). Pucher & Buehler (2010) found that one of the healthiest ways to travel around a community is to walk or bike, resulting in the use of automobiles. In doing so, communities profit from indirect public health benefits. For example, when communities use their cars less they will experience less quantities of pollution in regards to air, water, and noise, as well as lower levels

Ultimately, a city that is seeking to have a healthy community strives to have alternative ways to travel as well as safe routes, to get people out of their cars and onto bikes. Those commuting to work will be able to bike to a Metro station and board a train or bus to their work destination. Additionally, many work organizations are providing their employees with on-site bike paths, that can be enjoyed during their lunch breaks. Those who have access to bike paths have shown to have higher job satisfaction as well as increased worker productivity (Ride That Bike, 2007). And if the areas are landscaped, the trees and shrubbery act like vacuum cleaners pulling in surrounding and ambient carbon emissions from vehicles (Riggings, 2015).

The current bike path project, in the City of Burbank, will expand and develop old and new paths, so that residents and those traveling into the city, will have leisure and commuter opportunities for traveling without an automobile. The project will include cleaning and landscaping existing paths, making the area more visually appealing for those that walk and bike (Snyder & Horn Associates, 2005-b). Below is Compass Tree Park located on a section of the Burbank Western Channel Bike

After infrastructures were installed and/or connected to existing bike paths, nearby retail stores experienced a rise in sales because of the ease of access to them, that had not been there before (Garrard et al., 2012; Singh et al., 2012; Egelund, 2012; Chaddock et al., 2010; Hillman et al., 2005). Additionally, retail stores found their customer base had increased because of the new infrastructure, connecting the bike paths, had made the entries into the city, more accessible, thus bringing people in from other nearby communities (Elkhart, Indiana Pedal Panel, 2010). Marin County Bicycle Coalition (2014) found, for cities in California, that the typical cyclist will stop for a meal, given a convenient and safe infrastructure, and spend about an $34 during their stop. Lastly, The Marin County Bicycle Coalition (2014) found positive effects from cycling, in the way of reduced healthcare costs and increased health status amongst residents. Public health practitioners have researched the effects of bicycling as well as biking and walking infrastructures, and claim that biking on a routine basis can have immediate as well as long-term and substantial influences, on a person’s mental health and sense of well-being. Therefore, when you feel better it’s easier to for weight loss and weight maintenance, resulting in lower blood