Buy a Car, Gain Weight; It's That Simple

Lynn Sloman, in her book "Car Sick," mentions a study performed by Colin Bell, Keyou Ge, and Barry Popkin in China, which analyzed correlations in obesity paired with car ownership.

The study included 4,700 adults, all who previously hadn't owned vehicles. What Sloman mentions is the findings of the study: "If you buy a car, you will put on weight. You will be twice as likely to become clinically obese, and this will lead inexorably to poorer health."

I've always had mixed feelings about car use. Whilst living in Japan, I would think about the places I needed to go. Because the public transportation infrastructure in Japan is so developed, I could get to literally anywhere via public transportation. Time was a consideration, however. I could drive, spending money on gas, or I could spend my money on the train and/or bus.

I would most always take the public transportation route because, even if it took me longer to reach my destination, I saved carbon emissions and never had to worry about parking. Because of parking costs, I almost always saved money by taking the train/bus.

Back to weight gain, though. I knew that by not driving, I would need to walk between train stations and/or bus stops, to/from my departure/destination places from/to the train stations or bus stops. Let me make this clearer by illustrating a typical journey:

By Car:
Drive for 20 minutes to my destination, pay only for gas, no parking.

Time: 20 minutes
Calories Burned: 10
Cost: $1.50 (¥170)

By Train:
Walk to train station for 20 minutes. Wait for train avg. of 5 minutes. Pay train fare and ride train for 13 minutes. Walk to destination for 20 minutes.

Time: 58 minutes
Calories Burned: 210
Cost: $1.05 (¥120)

Obviously a lot more sweat is exerted by the latter means of transport. As you can see, driving cost more, but required far less effort. Essentially, you're paying for the luxury to drive. But, clearly you'll be hanging on to much more weight by driving. How about the much more sensible solution of bike riding:

By Bicycle:
Ride 25 minutes to destination, pay no parking.

Time: 25 minutes
Calories Burned: 150
Cost: $0.00 (¥0)

This is ideal. Don't pay a penny for gas, parking, tolls, or otherwise. And, you still burn the calories. A bicycle is a much smaller investment than a car; at least you're not going to have to take out a mortgage. Because this scenario took place in Japan, between small towns where you cannot drive too fast, bicycling was almost as fast as driving. In this case, bicycles actually have the upper-hand on cars because they can quickly travel back roads and navigate shortcuts.

Clearly there are much more sensible alternatives to transportation than driving a car. In this case, mass transportation could even be avoided. So why don't more people ride bikes or take the train? Apathy. Not driving means moving more than just your arms for a brief period of time, a task which seems to too many overly burdensome. Hence, the weight gain.

I'm not one to enjoy paying for gas, or even for public transportation on occasion, but calories? That's a price I can pay. Rather, a price I'd prefer to pay.

**If you live rurally, then you're a special case, to which special transportation alternatives apply.