[sustran] Fwd: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Guardian:Cycling Revolution !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sujit Patwardhan]

4 September 2013




Do read.
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Sujit



http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/02/cycling-revolution-mps

*The cycling revolution needs to start now –*

In the 1970s when smoking was still fashionable, not even those with the
most optimistic outlook could have imagined that it would suffer the fall
from grace that it has. Banned from pubs in 2007 and workplaces before
that, the impact of smoking on our health was undeniable and something had
to be done.

Today sitting is the new smoking, with 36,815 lives lost in England every
year because of physical
inactivity<http://www.sustrans.org.uk/press-releases/inactive-lifestyles-kill-estimated-36815-people-england-each-year>.
Imagine the day when we have mandatory health warnings on cars, when
government-funded advertising shouts about the dangers of sitting still and
when its compulsory for doctors to ask us how often we cycle as part of our
annual health check-up. The growing obesity crisis – as well as high levels
of heart disease, cancer and other fatal illnesses – puts an immense but
avoidable strain on the NHS, costing us billions. The health benefit of
cycling on the National Cycle
Network<http://www.sustrans.org.uk/press-releases/inactive-lifestyles-kill-estimated-36815-people-england-each-year>
in
2012 was £295m, according to the WHO Health Economic Assessment
Tool<http://www.heatwalkingcycling.org/>.
Getting Britain cycling makes economic sense too.




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*Parisar*

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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007, India
Tel: +91 20 25537955
Cell: +91 98220 26627
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Blog: http://motif.posterous.com/
Parisar: www.parisar.org
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