And he might be right.

The chief operating officer for the Disability Trust is a passionate cyclist and an advocate for two-wheeled solutions - for both the climate and your own wellbeing - and he says he comes up with many of his solutions while riding.

He is speaking at Thursday's Global Climate Change week online workshop, with a focus on the benefits of cycling, and how riding options can be improved for people with disability.

Read more: Ed Birt completes unassisted bike ride across continent

With the University of Wollongong-Wollongong City Council joint event concentrating on climate change as a health issue, Mr Birt said making cities friendlier for "active transport" on bikes would address both sides.

While he plans to talk about his ride across Australia - he rode from Fremantle to Austinmer raising funds for bikes for people with disability - he won't stop there, and is ready to address the barriers which may limit people's options for a healthy commute.

Mr Birt said this could include more safe bike paths so people who may fear cycling on the road have options.

"Vulnerable people, including people with disability, need to be able to access active transport in a safe way," he said.

"We don't have particularly good design of our roads, and our cars, which means people with disability, children, women, are underrepresented cycling.

"It's really a social justice issue, that people aren't able to get from A to B safely on an active transport mode like cycling. And that has obvious impacts for climate change.

"So if we want to reduce our impact on the environment, we have to be thinking about safe, active transport modes."

Changing the onus of proof in car-versus-bike crashes, so motorists had to justify why they hit a cyclist, may also improve cyclists' chances of not being hit.

Mr Birt likened dependence on cars to cigarettes: they might feel good to drive, and are in their own way satisfying - but they're doing you harm.

"The average distance for people to commute to or from work in Australia we know is 15km," Mr Birt said.

"That's easily achievable on a bike. In 15km you can save a couple of litres of petrol, get 45 minutes of exercise, save money, and when you save 2L of petrol being burnt, you save 4.8kg of carbon dioxide being belched out of the tailpipe into the stratosphere.

"It doesn't have to be every day of the week. Imagine if people felt confident to replace one or two trips a week, on a beautiful day, what sort of difference that would make."

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