Protection of vulnerable road users from motorised traffic (both perceived and actual)

Sports and Hobbies
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You seriously want data to show that taking exercise throughout your life (and cycling is excellent in that respect for many reasons) means you will live a longer and healthier life and won’t spend their final years in a decrepit, immobile state?

Sorry but I thought that sort of thing was common knowledge.
Whatever health authorities try and do in the way of publishing ways to live a healthy lifestyle seems to fall on deaf ears.

If I said that smoking caused lung cancer, you you be asking for data for that too?

You should read up on the Caerphilly Cohort study where they studied and are still studying) a whole town of 2235 men since 1979.
They chose men rather than a mix of women and men so they could rule out pregnancy effects and the fact that men had more heart problems than women).

The Cardiff University study found factors including diet and not smoking had an impact on preventing illnesses developing in older age.

However exercise had the single biggest influence on dementia levels.

They also had 70% fewer instances of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, compared with people who followed none of the factors.

The size of reduction in the instance of disease owing to these simple healthy steps has really amazed us and is of enormous importance in an ageing population," he said.

The study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857242/

What has surprised the scientists conducting the study is that although all the evidence is available:

The adoption of a healthy lifestyle by men was low and appears not to have changed during the subsequent 30 years, with under 1% of men following all five of the behaviours and 5% reporting four or more in 1979 and in 2009.

I mentioned cycling specifically as, for older people, it’s still possible to take a hour or two of really good and useful exercise on a bike without too much stress on the knees and other joints. I saw an interview with some of the men on the trial and they had been on a bike ride and were chatting, laughing and incredibly coherent in their speech-they could have been teenagers (apart from the coherent speech). They were in their eighties.

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Don’t move the goalposts; it was about the cycling you seem to favour so much.

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63

See above. I only gave a link to one study but it has been considered the most important study of its kind.

It would be the same anywhere - exercise and a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of dementia.
Dementia has a genetic component too so for some people, there will always be a greater risk.

My point about the Netherlands was obviously not clear to you. Head trauma (even minor) can also increase the risk of dementia. This is more likely if you cycle and do not take other exercise.
If I was undertaking a study to see where cycling (as a form of exercise) reduced the chance of dementia, I might not chose the Netherlands for that reason.

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Isn´t cycling exercise???

65

If you read anything about the study, you would have seen that it started in 1979.
Fitness Gyms and other fancy things just did not exist. Running as a past-time wasn’t a thing either.

People who took a lot of exercise either cycled or walked. Of course other forms of exercise may help but probably not in the same way.
Old people around here go out all day on their eBikes. Perhaps they are cycling for 3 or 4 of those.
People don’t spend four hours in a gym.

66

Sorry for not proof-reading enough for you. Obviously I meant - If you cycle and do not take other exercise.

I’m not sure what you, Greenmount and Bossbaby are trying to show as you haven’t made yourself clear at all.

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Really, we didn’t?

I like to run instead and I don’t feel safe going by bicycle in most places outside the bicycles trails/routes. And I will definitely not change my mind.

68

What’s the point you are trying to make?

69

Why is it that you have such a fat bee in your bonnet about this?
I have not really participated in this thread so I don´t understand your accusation nor your tone.

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70

Bee in a bonnet?

Why do you bring this up every time someone mentions cycling in a thread on this and previous on EF:

What triggers you about cycling so much? Why do you always take that tone?

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71

One could ask you the same questions.

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72

You clearly take me for someone else as I have seldom participated in threads on bicycling.

73

Two points here:

Running is good for you too. I run too. I’ve run twice in the last week.

It wasn’t mentioned in the study as recreational running wasn’t a thing many years ago.

As for safety - one aspect of the slowUP is it shows people that cycling can be safe if the right infrastructure and laws are put in place to protect cyclists.

The laws are worse in Switzerland than in any other European country.
On a cantonal level there are some great cycle routes on designated paths and minor residential roads. (For example, you can cycle from Zug to Luzern going almost the whole way on on-road cycle paths).

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Dumb statements trigger me.

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Yes I know it is good for me for goodness’s sake, I wouldn’t run otherwise!!! I am more of a sprinting kind of gal not really into long-distance running. I didn’t just mention running to piss you off.
You make it sound like those who’re not into cycling are some sort of poor ignorant souls which is not necessarily true. We are different; our families are different. My OH plays tennis with the older child and takes the younger one to climbing; I take the younger one to vitaparcours and the older one to movies, when we don’t do something together, like cycling or skying or museums… :joy:
Why people should feel like having to justify their life choices on this forum? I am always curious about other people’s experiences and try to share my point of view too, why is rarely some reciprocality, let alone the courtesy to accept other views?

And about dumb statements…sorry but you couldn’t provide any source to prove some of your assertions. Truth is any regular physical activity is good for you.

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So this is actually what you meant to say.

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Did you not see those links I provided?

78

No I didn’t.

I gave data for cycling. I have no idea for some forms of exercise. If you had asked for data for those, I wouldn’t have had any.

People really have different ideas of what a “non-couch potato” lifestyle is. It’s too vague a definition and isn’t useful at all.

Some forms of exercise are just not aerobic enough and do not stress the heart, lungs and their functionality together - your cardiovascular system.
Cycling,in Switzerland at least, tends to be both anaerobic and aerobic. Running is too and vigorous walking.
Body weight exercises are good too, combined with cardiovascular exercise - especially those involving balance and different muscle groups.

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Where did anyone ask you to justify your lifestyle choices.

This thread was about SlowUp- predominately a cycling event.
People were against it as it messed up their car journeys.
I see it as a celebration of cycling and a look at what is possibly - especially for people who are (rightly so) anxious about cycling here with the current attitude and infrastructure.
People have tried to improve things but the attitude at a Federal level is that cyclists are second-class road users.

I was commenting from a cycling point of view. I have also run, snowboarded, swam, kayaked, climbed, paraglided and sailed but that is not really relevant here.

I think people should cycle more - it’s a critical mass type thing. I’m enthusiastic but but can’t be done with the entitled anti-cycling brigade.

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:joy: :rofl: :joy:

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