Opinion: As Sask. health care struggles, bike lanes can help

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A front page of the StarPhoenix last month was quite upsetting. I was confronted with the heart-wrenching story of Fran Forsberg’s daughter’s time in the Royal University Hospital emergency room.

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I have chosen my words carefully to guide the reader through an example of how we can strengthen our anemic health-care system.

Despite my contentious conclusion, I hope readers will be able to follow the argument and form their own response. I must first assume three things: (1) the reader believes human life is good; (2) the reader has a rational capacity; and (3) that readers do not want to kill themselves.

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To dismiss my argument in its entirety you must also be willing to dismiss these assumptions. With my goodwill stated, I make the claim I intend to defend: Bike lanes are health care.

The nightmare Forsberg and her daughter endured in the ER does not surprise me. My own family doctor has so far ignored the recommendations of both a psychologist and social worker, lacking the resources to attend to my health.

Here, it is important to address a common misunderstanding of the true nature of a system. I often find myself thinking of our health-care system as this abstract thing only fixable through additional funding — funding our provincial government is unwilling to provide.

This abstract thinking is a mistake of definition and can create needless despair; it forgets that both you and I (the patient) and the municipal infrastructure which support us are an integral contributor to the health-care system. When the doctor prescribes me medication, it is my responsibility to take it.

When my uncle had a heart attack, it was his responsibility to exercise at the field house. If you and I fail to do what brings us health, then it is an unavoidable fact that we have failed our health-care system, but so too have our local officials and municipal infrastructure.

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Everyone failed this young girl, the provincial government most of all. Everyone can do their part to prevent “patients bleeding and having heart attacks” and making a young lady watch for 18 hours.

But this requires having local leaders who will make it easier to bike to work than to drive; who will support our health instead of building freeways.

I am absolutely ashamed of Charlie Clark’s deciding vote supporting the freeway (SP May 29, 2024), which will make it harder to bike, undermining our health-care system — undermining our health.

A vast body of research shows that biking strengthens us physically and mentally. We know from work done by the BEAP Lab at the University of Saskatchewan that there is an established and identifiable relationship between “built environments” and “sedentary time.”

Sedentary time is a risk factor for mortality, cardiovascular diseases and cancer and its “global impact on mortality [is] comparable with tobacco use and obesity,” according to a study published in the British Journal of General Practice in 2019.

People who are more sedentary are therefore statistically closer to death and will probably visit the hospital more often with more severe medical concerns, stressing an already stressed health-care system.

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The reader who believes human life is good, has a rational capacity, and does not want an early death will therefore use bike lanes if they are built.

Our municipal government has an incredible amount of power to shape our built environments by city planning for people instead of cars, making it easier to decrease sedentary time — by building bike lanes. In this way, bike lanes are health care.

To conclude this article, I borrow Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s approach to discussing controversial issues. It is my sincere intention to: (1) provide an example of how it is possible to break down these abstract issues; (2) identify the degrees of freedom available to individuals and local governments; and (3) show “that these arguments can make a difference.”

Marcus Kruger is an undergraduate student at the University of Saskatchewan studying computer science and philosophy who refuses to own a car. 

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