Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2014
Spinning the wheels and rolling the dice: life-cycle risks and benefits of bicycle commuting in the U.S.
To assess the net impact on U.S. longevity of the decision to commute by bicycle rather than automobile. ⋯ The lifetime health benefits of bicycle commuting appear to outweigh the risks in the U.S., but individuals who sufficiently discount or disbelieve the health benefits may delay or avoid bicycling. Bicycling in middle age avoids much fatality risk while capturing health benefits. Significant cross-state variations in bicycling mortality suggest that improvements in the built environment might spur changes in transit mode.