Healthy Activity Resources

Resources promoting physical activity for every generation living in the greater Wichita area.

Bike Month

Each year in May, we celebrate bikes and the healthy lifestyle they promote. We recognize the benefits all over Wichita! For the 2025 calendar of events and more check out the Bike Month ICT Website and Facebook page.

Bike Month ICT

Bike Wichita Because…

It's Fun

Time with family & friends
Relive childhood
Refresh — feel the breeze
Reduce stress

It's Healthy

Increased fitness
Weight loss
Heart benefits
Reduced stress

It's Smart

Save money
Keep the air clean
Reduce your carbon footprint

Five Benefits of Bicycling

For Your Body

Riding a bike offers many health benefits:

increased cardiovascular fitness
increased strength
increased balance and flexibility
increased endurance and stamina
increased calories burned

For Your State of Mind

Riding a bike is a proven stress releaser, and it can be done by people of all ages. Regardless of if you are riding purely for pleasure or for a specific purpose, you will arrive at your destination feeling relaxed, energized and happier about the world and yourself.

Plus, being out on your bike is just flat-out fun. The more time you spend on two wheels, the harder it is to take yourself too seriously.

For Your Community

Being out on your bike is good for the people around you as well. You are able to go the places you want to go, and you put one less car on the road.

You don’t bring with you the noise that a car generates and you are actually able to interact with people as you move. From my bike, I can wave to a neighbor, say hi to a kid, smell someone’s dinner cooking and be a warm and friendly human presence on the streets.

Operating a bicycling does not harm the environment. There is no polluting exhaust released and no oil or gas consumed. And the energy and materials used to manufacture one automobile could be used to created 100 bikes.

For Convenience

There is an undeniable convenience factor you’ll discover when riding a bike. Front row parking spaces are guaranteed no matter where you go. Traffic jams become irrelevant.

Though cars will certainly make better time on long trips, you’ll find for many short trips or through heavy traffic, you can travel just as fast or faster on your bike.

Have you ever been to a massive festival or concert in a park somewhere — the type of event that draws so many people that just getting there is a problem? Going in on a bike is a perfect solution. Zip in. Zip out. You don’t have to get there hours early to get a parking spot or park miles away from the event. And you won’t have to wait hours in traffic to get out once it’s over.

For Your Pocketbook

It costs between 20 and 30 cents per mile to operate a car, depending on the vehicle. This is based on expenses like gas, oil, maintenance, etc., that go up when you drive more. This figure doesn’t include the hidden costs of vehicle ownership like depreciation, taxes, and insurance. These factors make the actual per-mile cost to operate a car much higher.

When you start multiplying cost per mile to operate a car by the distance you ride, you can easily calculate how much money you’ll save by riding a bike.

For example, my daily round trip commute is 16 miles. If I do that just twice a week, I will save over $400 in operating costs alone in the course of a year. (16 miles x 2 trips per week x 52 weeks x .25 cents per mile.)

And if you would otherwise have to pay for parking, tolls, and the like, don’t forget to factor those in too. It can add up quickly.

Ride For You

When you ride your bike, you are doing a lot of good things, many of which are for the benefit of others. But ultimately, the one who benefits the most is you — through better health, peace of mind, increased confidence and self-reliance, heck, even through a fatter bank account.

So for all these reasons, get out there on your bike today. Even if you don’t save the world in the process, you’ll still have fun trying!

Local Biking Resources

Walktober

Walktober is a free, community-wide physical activity initiative, encouraging you to engage in the recommended 30 minutes of activity five or more days of the week. Walking is a perfect way to meet that goal!

Enjoy each day of October’s pleasant temperatures with a friend, child, spouse, co-worker, neighbor or pet. You might get hooked! Forming a walking habit is comfortable with the partnership and accountability of friendship, family, neighbors, co-worker or dog. Walking-and-talking is relaxing for mental health and stimulating to the body’s health.

The Sedgwick County Health Department started Walktober in 2008 to encourage people to get out and walk. Each year, community partners come together to plan events and promote the benefits of walking.

Thank You to Our Community Partners

Ongoing Events

Exploration Place parkrun – A free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate – it’s up to you!
Did you know that four new StoryWalk® locations have been added within the past year? This interactive attraction pairs literacy with physical activity. There are stations along the walking path at the park, each one containing laminated pages from a children’s book. Read the whole book with your child and ask guided questions about what they read, provided at the last station of the StoryWalk®.
Sedgwick County Zoo Making Tracks – track your miles walked at the zoo! Call 316-660-9453 for more information or stop by the Zoo Store.

Why Walking?

What’s new? The mantra “10,000 steps a day” should be nuanced. That recommendation seems to have come from a Japanese marketing plan for a pedometer. In the last few years new studies have suggested that the benefits of walking occur at lower levels.
Data from the Women’s Health Study published in 2019 showed that for women over 45, significant decrease in mortality was seen at just 4,400 steps per day, and the benefits leveled off at about 7,500 steps per day.
An international group formed the Steps for Health Collaborative and did a meta-analysis of 15 studies. Published results in Lancet in 2022, it found that for those 60 and older, the benefits leveled off between 6,000-8,000 steps per day. For those younger than 60, benefits leveled off at about 8,000-10,000 steps per day.
10,000 steps per day is a daunting challenge, one that could discourage many people from even starting to walk. Physicians should recommend walking as a basic tenet of preventive care and emphasize that benefits can occur at lower numbers of steps. Download the Medical Society of Sedgwick County “Prescription for Walking” here.
Doc Mike Evans – 23 ½ Hours video

Resources to keep you motivated all year long

Walking Tips for Seniors
Walking Tips for Families
Walk BINGO
Walk at Work Tips
Worksite Walking Clubs
Walking Detective Kids Workbook – Is your neighborhood a safe and easy place to walk and bike? It’s up to you to find out! Take the case and you can be a walking detective.
Walking Detective Leaders Guide
6 steps and helpful tips for starting a walking club
Wichita Flag Murals Map
Interactive map of Keeper Statues – walk to a keeper in your neighborhood!
Volunteer to walk a dog! Kansas Humane Society’s Dog’s Day Out program allows you to take a dog out of the shelter for outings in the community. Outings can include a hike, a car ride to get a pup cup, and visits to dog friendly stores and locations in Wichita. Participants do not have to commit to a minimum number of outings or undergo the detailed training that in-shelter volunteers are required to take. Participants must be at least 18 years old. For more information, contact Shanna.
Get Outdoors Kansas – explore trails across the state!
What if we all lived life at 3 mph? Wayfarer Jonathon has walked thousands of miles over the last few years in response to that question, including an across-country walk to raise support for Kiva.org. In this riveting talk, Jonathon asks us to question the design of our cities, and implores the audience to get out of the car, off the bike, and into a slower state of mind.