Reason #6: Because life expectancy is falling in many places in America, and that’s ridiculous

For the next 6 days (until December 9), you can join (or renew your membership in) Bike Delaware for only $25.

Despite our growing medical knowledge, despite ever more sophisticated drugs and medical devices, despite a nationwide drop in mortality from lung cancer, despite a drop in the murder rate and deaths from traffic accidents and despite spending more money per capita on health care than any other nation on earth, in many places in the U.S. life expectancy is actually lower than it was 20 years ago.

In more than 20% of U.S. counties, life expectancy for women has fallen.  And in many other counties, life expectancy is just barely holding steady.

That can’t be right, can it?

It is.  And the reason is not obscure: obesity, and the chronic diseases and mortality associated with it.

This is a lifestyle catastrophe, one we have brought on ourselves and one that is swamping all the medical and technological interventions and innovations that we spend so much money on.

We need to change this, and we can.  By joining with other cyclists,  you are funding an organized, unified and powerful voice for bicycling in Delaware.  We have shown how powerful – how irresistible, in fact – we are when we are unified, organized and focused.  If you want more of that – and want physical activity to be again be a part of everyday life for Delawareans so that we can stop America’s obesity epidemic – please help by renewing your membership in Bike Delaware, or by becoming a member of Bike Delaware for the first time, today.