Want to Be Happy?

We all, generally, want to be happy. So what's the thing about our day that's "most injurious to happiness?" According to David Brooks, it's commuting-- assuming it's usually done in a car.

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Jonah Lehrer, a contributing editor at Wired and author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide, added money to the equation. He wrote recently about the commute, happiness and money. He references a study that suggests that:

"a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office."

Well, you know that walking and biking-- active transportation-- takes the edge off a commute by making it rewarding, fun and healthy instead of it being an assault on happiness. And you know that it saves a pile of money (the average cost just to own and operate a car: $9,369 according to AAA).

With the commute-money-happiness connection reinforced once again (and with Bike Month coming right up), being happy can mean one  simple decision: biking.