Worth the Risk? Bicycle Commuting for Fun, Health and Pocketbook. A Community Gets Involved

By David C. Read, MBA, MPH

January is the month for New Year’s resolutions and making plans for summer. If you are resolving to improve your health and decrease your level of stress, you may be considering traveling to Avila, Spain for the next Living Whole immersion retreat from June 18-23, 2017. The self-care and wellness experiences at the retreat will serve you long after you leave the beautiful sierra just northwest of Madrid.

Before and after the immersion, many hours of your life may involve commuting between home to work. I work in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, and have been a bike commuter for many years. An increase in the popularity of this mode of transportation has been attributed to the desire to combine a commute to work with enhancing health, providing fun and improving personal finances.

But, at the same time, safety concerns have risen. These two videos are part of an effort to galvanize interest in improving the safety of bike commuting in that congested part of Boston. Whether you live there and want to become involved, or you live elsewhere and want to launch a similar campaign, these short videos will interest you.

David C. Read was the Administrative Director for Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He is currently the Vice President of Ambulatory Care Operations and Medical Oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. He serves on the Advisory Council of International Integrators, bringing his professional expertise and dedicated history as a philanthropist to our organization.

He is also Chairman of Board for the 15-state East Coast Greenway (ECG) project (www.greenway.org) which seeks to create a long-distance, urban, shared-use trail system linking 25 major cities along the eastern seaboard between Calais, Maine and Key West, Florida. David views trails, and the exercise they can provide, as a wonderful way to help prevent and combat heart disease, diabetes, childhood obesity and certain types of cancer.

David has an MBA from Boston College and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University where he studied epidemiology and health policy. He lives in Topsfield, Massachusetts with his wife, two children, two hamsters and a chicken. He has his pilot’s license and has done historical research on the Halifax explosion of 1917. His major hobby is woodworking (www.davidreadwoodworking.com) and he has made many pieces of fine furniture.