June 3, 2020 - (Waterloo, WIS) There’s never been a better time to hop on a bike and go for a ride – and, whether it’s for essential travel, exercise, to let off some steam or to reduce your own personal carbon footprint, the benefits for you, your family, your community and your planet are clear.
Trek Bicycle is creating sweeping collective action across the globe with #GoByBike, a movement encouraging people to choose to ride a bike at least one trip a week, replacing other modes of transportation, with the goal of reaching 10 million trips for a healthier planet and population. While society is still social distancing, there’s never been a better time to support climate action and form new habits, inspiring everyone to choose a bike trip over a car trip as often as possible. “Now is the time to adjust our behaviors for the better and co-design a new normal that will have lasting impact on our people and planet,” says Trek Bicycle President John Burke.
For the planet, biking is climate action. Between rising global temperatures, melting ice caps, air pollution, and working to heal a delicate ozone layer, among other things, the world was in a tough spot before the global COVID-19 pandemic. It’s still in a tough spot. Air pollution contributes to 7 million deaths a year globally, according to the World Health Organization. It’s clear, though, that collective action can drive change. Cities, for example, that traditionally suffer from the world’s worst air pollution have seen reductions of air pollution by up to 60 percent from the previous year, during a three-week pandemic lockdownperiod.1 Replacing trips made by a car, bus, train or subway with a bike trip can reduce emissions and in turn impact our environment in a positive way.
“At Trek, we are moving fast on climate change. We have hundreds of action items we are taking to reduce our environmental impact, but the biggest thing we can do is to get more people to actually ride their bikes,” says Burke. “This is bigger than just an environmental crisis—it’s a health crisis, and in many places a congestion crisis, which will only continue to get worse as people opt to drive personal cars more in an effort to avoid public transportation and social distance. It is our hope that by encouraging the #GoByBike movement, everyone can look back together and be able to say they played their part in shaping a better future for themselves, their family, their community, and generations to come.”
For both kids and adults, bike riding is just plain fun and a healthy activity that gets you moving outdoors. In a recent national survey conducted by Trek, 42% of Americans who own a bike revealed they are riding to get out of the house and/or for fun amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Biking can make a world of difference too, especially now, with Americans replacing crowded forms of public transportation with biking. The same survey uncovered that 85% of Americans perceive cycling as the safer mode of transportation compared to public transportation while social distancing. Nearly 1/3 (27%) of Americans who own a bike are also turning to bike riding for mental health and/or to destress during the pandemic.
For more information, please visit trekbikes.com/gobybike.
About Trek Bicycle
Trek Bicycle is a global leader in the design and manufacture of bicycles and related products. Trek believes the bicycle can be a simple solution to many of the world’s most complex problems, and is committed to breaking down the barriers that prevent people from using bicycles more often for transportation, recreation, and inspiration.
