5 Ways to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions with Bikeshare Hawaii

5 Ways to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions with Bikeshare Hawaii

How are you doing with your New Year’s Resolutions? Are you on track to make your resolutions a reality in 2021?

Here are 5 ways that Hele-On and Bikeshare Hawaii Island can help you keep those resolutions:

1. Help you save money 

Looking to save up for a vacation (finally!) or a new house? Or do you just want to find better ways to cut down costs and pay off debt in 2021? Consider using the Bikeshare system for transportation in conjunction with using the Hawaii County Mass Transit buses.

With your MT Hele-On monthly bus pass, you get unlimited rides for $60 on all bus routes throughout the month it is purchased for. And Bikeshare membership for Hawaii MT pass holders is FREE! You can find more information on purchasing monthly MT passes here: www.heleonbus.org/hele-on-fares

With the Bikeshare Subscription Plan, you get unlimited 30-minute rides for $15 per month or unlimited 60-minute rides for $25 per month, making Bikeshare Hawaii a cost-efficient option for recreation and transportation.

2. Help you decrease your carbon footprint

Road transportation accounts for as much as one-fifth of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, but we can work together to change that! Experts predict that there would be an 11% reduction overall in global carbon emissions by 2050 if bikes make up 14% of travel.

If you want to live sustainably in 2021 and develop more environmentally-friendly habits this year, then reducing your amount of travel in a gas-guzzling vehicle is a fantastic way to accomplish that!

Minimizing your carbon footprint can be as easy as taking a Bikeshare bike to pick up food on your lunch break, or using the Bikeshare system as your first and last mile transportation option, in conjunction with using the Hawaii County Mass Transit buses.

Taking the Hele-On buses is an easy way to go green, since mass transit helps decrease our island’s greenhouse gases and toxic emissions by minimizing single-automobile usage. Check out their bus schedules and maps for more info on how you can work bus rides into your daily commute.

3. Help you save time. Even though the holidays are behind us, life can be just as busy as ever. Whether you want to manage time better so you can have more ZOOM calls with family or get more workouts in, biking is a great time saver.

By riding a bike on weekdays, you can transform your commute to work into a WORKOUT, so why not make your cycling do double duty? And in the case of getting around Kona or Hilo, your bike might just be able to transport you around town faster than a car, since the bike lanes are often less congested than our roads.

Did we mention that you won’t have to worry about finding a parking spot? Just dock your bike at the Bikeshare kiosk when you’re done and be on your way.

4. Help you get fit and stay healthy. Let’s face it, staying healthy has never been more of a priority! We’re all looking for more ways to take a proactive approach to our health, and cycling is one of the top low-impact cardiovascular workouts for any fitness level.

Riding a bike offers plenty of health benefits, including:

  • Reduced risk of arthritis, diabetes, high cholesterol, and other diseases. According to a large-scale research study in Finland, individuals who cycled for over 30 minutes per day had a 40% lower risk of developing diabetes.?
  • Decreased blood pressure and body fat, with the average person burning between 450 to 750 calories per hour of cycling.
  • Increased muscle strength and a stronger heart.
  • Improved joint stability and mobility.
  • Increased aerobic fitness, balance, and endurance.

Being outdoors on a bike also has an abundance of physical and mental health benefits, including increased doses of vitamin D through exposure to healthy amounts of sunlight.

5. Give your mental health a boost. One of the best resolutions you can make this year is to take extra steps in caring for your mental health, and doing so doesn’t have to be complicated! Spending as little as 20 minutes outdoors has been proven to reduce stress levels and improve your mood, enhancing your health and wellness.    

And cycling is a particularly effective mood stabilizer, since your levels of dopamine and  serotonin increase as you ride. Whether you need to blow off steam, relieve anxiety, or boost your mood, stress relief is just a bike ride away. So grab a pass, hop on a bike, and take advantage of the mental health benefits that biking can offer.

A Few Helpful Tips for Keeping your New Year’s Resolutions: 

  • Be SMART! SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. Whatever your 2021 resolution, you’ll increase the chances of sticking to it by setting SMART goals.

What baby steps will you take this week and within the next month to achieve your goals for 2021? Defining these steps by setting some smaller goals each week and month will help you measure your progress and move toward your 2021 goal.

Begin by assigning specific, realistic dates to the small goals. Then, as you accomplish these, you will gain confidence and realize that heck yeah, you really do have what it takes to achieve that ultimate goal!

  • Remember WHY your goal matters. Your goals may appear realistic on paper, but as we learned from 2020, obstacles can arise that require us to pivot. And when those occur, it’s tempting to throw in the towel.

If the going gets tough, find motivation by reminding yourself why that goal was important to you in the first place. Be proactive by putting reminders of your WHY where you will see it daily, so you can read it when you need an extra dose of encouragement! Whether you put a post-it note on your fridge or make a motivating quote your screensaver, these reminders can renew your focus and keep you progressing toward your goal.

Whether your New Year’s Resolution is to spend less, get more exercise, increase your daily dose of vitamin D, decrease pollution, or reduce stress, our Bikeshare bikes are your vehicle for reaching your goals.