The #Motorized #Commute – Sedentary Kilometers

While the decrease in daily energy expenditure in our working environments can explain, in part, the obesity epidemic, the other parts of our daily life are not without blame. At work we sit and move primarily just our fingers, so maybe it is a good idea to increase our daily energy expenditure via our daily commute. Unfortunately, during the last 35 years the number of people who commute to work using their own physical energy/power has decreased by half from 30% to approximately 15%.

Here are the facts:

• 67% of Finland’s work, school and daily commuting happens by car and over half of those trips are under 5km.
• Finns sit in their cars for an average of 1 hour and 6 minutes per day.
• Men who drive their cars for over 1 hour and 26 minutes per day are at an 82% higher risk to die of cardiorespiratory diseases in comparison to those who sit in the car for less than 34 minutes per day. When physical activity is taken into account, those who drive more are still at a 48% greater risk for disease and death.
• As a population, Finns drive approximately 202 million kilometers a day.
• There are currently 600 million cars in the world.
• In the USA, obesity has grown at the same rate as the total number of kilometers driven.
• It is predicted that in 2020 that there will be over a billion cars in this world, as many as there are obese people.
• In China, 1 in 6 bikes is sold with a motor and 1 in 5 people are overweight