by Mike Puchowicz MD

Scanning through Pubmed is often as entertaining as watching paint dry on a cool humid day. Ocassionally though you might find someone (err some group) like Nelson et. al. They ask the question “Active commuting to school: How far is too far?” Int. J. Behav. Nutr. Phys. Act. 2008 Jan 8;5:1. Turns out, it’s an interesting study of adolescents’ commuting behavior that left me asking the question “Bike Paths or Billboards?”

The study was fairly straight forward.  It consisted of just around 4000 Irish adolescents who were asked whether they choose active commuting (riding a bike or walking) versus passive commuting (planes, trains, and automobiles) and why.

Straight forward studies find straight forward results. These Irish adolescents listed distance and time as the top reasons for preferring passive over active commuting. Also, they where unlikely to walk or bike if the distance exceed 1.5 (walking) and 2.5 (biking) miles. Eyeballing the graphs in the study there is no obvious magic number where suddenly everybody would commute actively. Actively commuting just trickled down as the miles piled up.

As a cyclist, who’s been struck more than once by a car,  I was sure that physical and safety barriers like lack of bike routes, heavy traffic, bad weather, heavy loads would be next on the list. Nope. The Irish youths said laziness, being too tired, or more convenient options where the next most common factors.  Weather, danger from traffic, heavy loads, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of bike paths, in that order, were the least common.

Based on the study results its clear that Irish adolescents are just plain crazy.

Or maybe they actually make some sense.

For some reason, I thought about the time when I walked from Georgia to Maine. It was a little over 2 thousand miles and was probably the longest walk that I have ever taken. The distance and time required (along with not showering, carrying a backpack, Eric Rudolph, and giving up “normal” life) is more than enough to keep reasonable people from hopping on the Appalachian Trail in Georgia and heading for Maine.

In fact, most people on the AT happen to be a bit different. One paticular thru-hiker was a young pilot who had the lightest pack of anyone else that I met. When the topic of “why do it ?” (a very good question actually) came up, his answer was “just for the challenge.”  What?  Seriously?  You’re walking from Georgia to Maine just because it’s difficult?

Absurd like the Irish right? So I decided to take some non-average people put them into the study scenario and see if the Irish youths start to make a bit more sense.  

Lets start with our pilot friend. Our challenge-seeker will not care about active commuting if the distance is less than a measly 2.5 miles. To get him to commute actively, the path would have to be long and treacherous. His active commuting would also be temporary, because once the challenge is completed it becomes less apealing.

The majority of thru-hikers were simply “Thru-hikers.” They soaked it all in on the good days and were out there all the same when it had been raining for a week straight. Give this group an absolutely pristine bike path through a forest in the middle of the city and they would be happy as a clam. But, if conditions are less than ideal, they would be out there all the same.

The one response that I never heard while on the AT was “Well… I was in Georgia and I needed to get to Maine. I thought about flying and driving but it didn’t seem like it was worth the hassle so I decided to walk.” But, if the distance is less than a mile it just might be less hassle to walk, or bike, if less than 2.5 miles. Beyond that, it starts getting a lot easier to drive. 

Okay, so these adolescnets were Irish. What are they going to tell us about the decision process of US adolescents? 

As it turns out maybe it tells us quite a bit. As opposed to the Irish data where 90% of commuters travelling less than 1 mile did so actively, the majority of US youth commute passively regardless of distance (according to a JAMA article).  Something more than practicality is at work here.  Something much more influential– US culture.

I still believe that bike paths are important and shortening commute distance even moreso. But if the US commuting habits are to change our culture will likely have to change. In that light, I will ask the question again. What will have more impact, Bike Paths or Billboards?