When poor teenagers arrive at their appointments with Alan Meyers, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, he performs a standard examination and prescribes whatever medication they need. But if the patient is struggling with transportation or weight issues, he asks an unorthodox question:
"Do you have a bicycle?"
Often, the answer is "no" or "it's broken" or "it got stolen."
In those cases, Meyers does something even more unusual: He prescribes them year-long memberships to Hubway, Boston's bike sharing program, for just $5 per year—a steep discount from the regular $85 price.
"What we know is that if we are trying to get some sort of exercise incorporated into their daily routine, [the bike] works better than saying, 'Take x time every day and go do this,'" Meyers told me.
The bike-prescribing program is paid for by the city. For patients without bank accounts, Boston even puts up its own city credit card. Meyers thinks the two-wheeled solution tackles several problems at once.
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