High Gasoline Prices Hurting? The Answer to Saving Money on Gas Might Be in Your Garage

Robin Willaims, the actor who most recently starred in the movie RV, is an over-the-top bicycle fanatic as well. He owns several racing bikes, of ever increasing cost, and rides in various road races as a competitor. He doesn't have to worry about the cost of his next gas station fillup, like the rest of us but rides a bicycle every chance he get. He is also in excellent physical shape, a side effect of bike riding that helps him with the pratfalls and stunts associated with his movie career.

Getting back to that bicycle in your garage, it is possible to ride it to work and back and survive, Americans do it every day. It might even be the patriotic thing to do considering that we are now experiencing the benefits of the National Energy Policy  that was adopted by Washington in 2003.

Various studies are taken by academic organizations on the "average" commute times and distances in major urban areas in the United States and for the illustrative purposes of this article we will be working with a vehicle driving distance of six miles, twice-a-day for a total of twelve miles. Figuring a half-hour in the morning to work and a half-hour back home in the afternoon we have the basis for our adding-up the benefits of your becoming a biker.

Bicycling Calories Used riding to work. If you weigh 130 pounds and pedal 10-12 miles per hour (the actual average speed of most cities commuter traffic) you will use 350 calories for the six miles, twice-a-day equals 12 miles bicycled. In two weeks of biking to work you will have used-up 3,500 calories which equals one pound of fat! If you keep your food intake at the same level as usual, in three months of summer bicycling to work you can lose twelve pounds.