The Fringe benefits of Cycling
We all know of the main benefits of cycling; it is primarily related to health and fitness and secondly to the environment.
Refer the following links for more information on the same:
http://www.cyclists.in/forum/topics/benefits-of-cycling
http://www.cyclists.in/group/recycle/forum/topics/cycling-trivia
Since the mainstream benefits of cycling are so much publicized; and in some cases hyped, let us keep them aside for a moment and observe some fringe benefits of cycling. In employment terms, fringe benefits are compensations made to an employee beyond the regular benefit of being paid for their work.
One can exercise and one can commute to work. But cycling is one of the few mediums which will help you to commute and exercise simultaneously. You cannot do a workout on a motorcycle and cannot run to your office on a treadmill.
If you need to understand and appreciate the concept of gears with respect to mechanics and physics, and see how speed and power are inversely related, riding a bicycle with gears is one of the simplest and practical ways to do so.
Unlike for a motor vehicle, you do not need to go through all the hassles like registration and other paper work for a bicycle. You will have very little trouble with the traffic police if you use a bicycle. A traffic cop will not randomly stop you and ask to see your vehicle papers. He will not test you for drunken driving (This is an observation, not a recommendation).
Cost wise, using a bicycle saves a lot over a motor vehicle. Apart from the obvious cost price difference, there are many other factors. When you use a bicycle, you do not have fuel costs and you have much lesser maintenance costs. And then, you do not have to pay toll at any of the check posts.
It’s quite possible that at intervals in the future, hedge fund speculation and the Arab cartel could push up the price of crude oil to levels where ordinary motorists will find it difficult to pay for fuel. We have already seen how crude oil shot up to $140 per barrel a couple of years back. As a cyclist you do not have to worry about these factors.
The bicycle is such a simple machine and everything is so transparent and open that when you take it for repairs of some kind, there is really very little room for the bicycle mechanic to fool you. Secondly because of this inherent simplicity, it is very easy to estimate the amount of time required to repair the bicycle than it is for a motorcycle.
An implication of this simplicity is that it is relatively very easy to sell and buy used bicycles. The buyer does not have to put time and effort to ensure that he does not buy a lemon and seller does not have to put time and effort in convincing the buyer that the bicycle is not a lemon; unlike in the case of a motor car.
A bicycle has a lot of convenience benefits attached to it. You need not wait out at a traffic signal. If you know that the signal is going to take too long to change, you can get down, join the pedestrians and push the bicycle across the traffic junction. Even if you are stuck at a traffic signal, beggars will leave you alone; they do not think you are worthy of their attention. Even if BMC or MTNL has dug up trenches on one of your regular roads making it unusable for traffic, the impact on a cyclist is minimal. If you work in a special economy zone and you need to get a motor vehicle inside the campus, you need to get a gate pass for your vehicle. For bicycle, there are no such hassles.
In some places, it is difficult to know whether the place you have parked your vehicle is a no parking zone. You go to a bank or a restaurant, park your bicycle outside and go in. Suddenly, a traffic police truck comes and starts picking up all the motorcycles because the place where you have parked your vehicle happens to be a no parking zone. All the motorbike owners scamper outside trying to save their motorcycles. You can afford to relax because they are not going to touch your bicycle.
In case a political leader is arrested and his followers run riot, they will damage cars and buses. They probably won’t touch your bicycle for it does not have glass, the rioter’s delight. If they have not got their hands on any vehicle, at max they might deflate your bicycle’s tires. But most probably they will consider it below their prestige and dignity to take a note of your bicycle.
If the city is flooded by once in a generation flood without even a warning from the Metrological Department; and it is generally that way, and if you are really unlucky, your motor vehicle’s machinery might be damaged and it might be days of even weeks before the overworked auto mechanics get time to fix your car. Or you might need to kick your motorcycle 70 times before it starts. But if you have a bicycle, you just wipe it clean and go your way passing abandoned cars and thousands of stranded rail and bus commuters walking on the road.
Suppose you earlier had an ordinary bicycle; you now buy one with gears. A typical reaction from the folks in your neighborhood is “Why did you not buy a motorcycle?” If you are cycling by choice, you already posses and are further developing a very important but rarely found human temperament; the ability of being comfortable either being with the crowd or against the crowd. This is the quality that will protect you from getting carried away by bubbles like real estate bubbles and stock market bubbles. As the greatest investor Warren Buffett says, "The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd." I know this sounds too far fetched but we are only talking of fringe benefits.
Cycling is a mode of transportation which is neither cruel to environment nor cruel to animals, unlike automobiles and animal driven carts. The fact that using a bicycle is good for the environment is a main benefit of cycling; but a related fringe benefit is that it allows a cyclist to enjoy his hobby and at the same time take a moral high ground when talking to page 3 type experts about global warming.
If you are travelling through a national park, riding a bicycle is your best bet of really sighting wild animals in their own habitat really very close. Cyclists in Borivali National Park will vouch for such close encounters with herds of deer. With a bicycle, you can really surprise a herd of deer; you neither have the speed handicap of walking, nor the noise handicap of a motor vehicle.
Refer the following links for more information on the same:
http://www.cyclists.in/forum/topics/benefits-of-cycling
http://www.cyclists.in/group/recycle/forum/topics/cycling-trivia
Since the mainstream benefits of cycling are so much publicized; and in some cases hyped, let us keep them aside for a moment and observe some fringe benefits of cycling. In employment terms, fringe benefits are compensations made to an employee beyond the regular benefit of being paid for their work.
One can exercise and one can commute to work. But cycling is one of the few mediums which will help you to commute and exercise simultaneously. You cannot do a workout on a motorcycle and cannot run to your office on a treadmill.
If you need to understand and appreciate the concept of gears with respect to mechanics and physics, and see how speed and power are inversely related, riding a bicycle with gears is one of the simplest and practical ways to do so.
Unlike for a motor vehicle, you do not need to go through all the hassles like registration and other paper work for a bicycle. You will have very little trouble with the traffic police if you use a bicycle. A traffic cop will not randomly stop you and ask to see your vehicle papers. He will not test you for drunken driving (This is an observation, not a recommendation).
Cost wise, using a bicycle saves a lot over a motor vehicle. Apart from the obvious cost price difference, there are many other factors. When you use a bicycle, you do not have fuel costs and you have much lesser maintenance costs. And then, you do not have to pay toll at any of the check posts.
It’s quite possible that at intervals in the future, hedge fund speculation and the Arab cartel could push up the price of crude oil to levels where ordinary motorists will find it difficult to pay for fuel. We have already seen how crude oil shot up to $140 per barrel a couple of years back. As a cyclist you do not have to worry about these factors.
The bicycle is such a simple machine and everything is so transparent and open that when you take it for repairs of some kind, there is really very little room for the bicycle mechanic to fool you. Secondly because of this inherent simplicity, it is very easy to estimate the amount of time required to repair the bicycle than it is for a motorcycle.
An implication of this simplicity is that it is relatively very easy to sell and buy used bicycles. The buyer does not have to put time and effort to ensure that he does not buy a lemon and seller does not have to put time and effort in convincing the buyer that the bicycle is not a lemon; unlike in the case of a motor car.
A bicycle has a lot of convenience benefits attached to it. You need not wait out at a traffic signal. If you know that the signal is going to take too long to change, you can get down, join the pedestrians and push the bicycle across the traffic junction. Even if you are stuck at a traffic signal, beggars will leave you alone; they do not think you are worthy of their attention. Even if BMC or MTNL has dug up trenches on one of your regular roads making it unusable for traffic, the impact on a cyclist is minimal. If you work in a special economy zone and you need to get a motor vehicle inside the campus, you need to get a gate pass for your vehicle. For bicycle, there are no such hassles.
In some places, it is difficult to know whether the place you have parked your vehicle is a no parking zone. You go to a bank or a restaurant, park your bicycle outside and go in. Suddenly, a traffic police truck comes and starts picking up all the motorcycles because the place where you have parked your vehicle happens to be a no parking zone. All the motorbike owners scamper outside trying to save their motorcycles. You can afford to relax because they are not going to touch your bicycle.
In case a political leader is arrested and his followers run riot, they will damage cars and buses. They probably won’t touch your bicycle for it does not have glass, the rioter’s delight. If they have not got their hands on any vehicle, at max they might deflate your bicycle’s tires. But most probably they will consider it below their prestige and dignity to take a note of your bicycle.
If the city is flooded by once in a generation flood without even a warning from the Metrological Department; and it is generally that way, and if you are really unlucky, your motor vehicle’s machinery might be damaged and it might be days of even weeks before the overworked auto mechanics get time to fix your car. Or you might need to kick your motorcycle 70 times before it starts. But if you have a bicycle, you just wipe it clean and go your way passing abandoned cars and thousands of stranded rail and bus commuters walking on the road.
Suppose you earlier had an ordinary bicycle; you now buy one with gears. A typical reaction from the folks in your neighborhood is “Why did you not buy a motorcycle?” If you are cycling by choice, you already posses and are further developing a very important but rarely found human temperament; the ability of being comfortable either being with the crowd or against the crowd. This is the quality that will protect you from getting carried away by bubbles like real estate bubbles and stock market bubbles. As the greatest investor Warren Buffett says, "The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect. You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd." I know this sounds too far fetched but we are only talking of fringe benefits.
Cycling is a mode of transportation which is neither cruel to environment nor cruel to animals, unlike automobiles and animal driven carts. The fact that using a bicycle is good for the environment is a main benefit of cycling; but a related fringe benefit is that it allows a cyclist to enjoy his hobby and at the same time take a moral high ground when talking to page 3 type experts about global warming.
If you are travelling through a national park, riding a bicycle is your best bet of really sighting wild animals in their own habitat really very close. Cyclists in Borivali National Park will vouch for such close encounters with herds of deer. With a bicycle, you can really surprise a herd of deer; you neither have the speed handicap of walking, nor the noise handicap of a motor vehicle.
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