Here’s one for your required reading stack: The Benefits of Bicycling (pdf), a new report from Cascade Bicycle Club. It’s an enjoyable eleven pages on the ways that bicycling helps address climate change, even while it saves money and boosts our health.

The paper doesn’t contain new primary research, but it’s a nicely readable summary of the best thinking in favor of two-wheeled transport. (Plus, it’s chock full of charts and data that prove the point.) From the introduction:

We need to embrace new technology but also look past it to plan for a reduction in the number of miles we drive… A successful response to global warming will involve the cultivation of compact neighborhoods and an empowerment of residents to choose transportation modes beyond the private automobile.

Fortunately, there is a readily-available transportation mode that is well suited to the compact neighborhoods of the future. It is affordable and takes up little space. It addresses all three “legs” of the [transportation emissions] “stool,” emitting no pollution whatsoever and cutting driving rates. Parking is a breeze.

It is the bicycle.

Take a look. Lead author is Patrick McGrath.