health – canberra.bike

Living on the edge

Red and blue pill. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The joy of a house in the suburbs can be short-lived should public transport and cycling infrastructure be lacking. The financial and health costs of car dependence and long commute times can push a household to the edge. Urban sprawl can entrench disadvantage.

Ride or Walk to School: Physical Activity Foundation

The Physical Activity Foundation runs the ACT ride to school program. Schools are not resourced for this sort of thing. Bikes, for example, are not something schools would own. Clearly, a child can only learn to ride on a bike. Not every family may be able to afford the bike. Schools hire instruments but not bikes. Here is how it is done.

“The Physical Activity Foundation is a registered Health Promotion Charity based in the ACT and our goal is to reduce the incidence of sedentary lifestyle diseases in children.”
About Us, Physical Activity Foundation

The lifetime cost of a bike

Businesses are accustomed to calculating the lifetime cost of ownership of a motor vehicle. This is something we rarely do in our private lives. An inexpensive new car with an on-road purchase price below $20,000 will cost easily $4000 per annum when all costs are considered. For that price, a family could have a number of very nice bikes. Bikes have a lifetime cost as well and here is one example.