BikeSnob NYC has been referring to Bike Month and Bike Week as a celebration of smugness. I guess it could be that. I’d like to suggest that we can make it more. We can, and should, use this time to invite our friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family to ride. Get someone on a bike, and you have helped.
I’d also like to suggest that this week is an especially good time to invite folks to use their bikes to get to work.
Stats: Typical Trip in the United States = 5 miles, 1 passenger, 5 pounds of cargo.
Surely we can reduce this in some way? If we who ride cannot find a way to replace at least some of that with something saner, then who will?
Please consider the following issues. Our roads and streets are becoming more crowded and difficult. Congestion is a serious problem. Bicycles don’t take up as much room on the road. We have serious money problems at all levels of government. Roads are falling into disrepair. The money to fix them is going to be harder to come by. Bikes don’t damage the roads as much as heavier vehicles. That saves us a lot of cash.
Riding your bike can save you a bucket load of money. It doesn’t burn gas. It’s that simple. Every mile you ride, instead of driving, is another mile that you preserve your investment in your motor vehicle. I derive an enormous amount of pleasure from a very simple thing. It’s a lot of fun to not go to the gas station every week.
My brother is very knowledgeable about automobiles. He is a real “car guy.” Back a few years ago, when I had just purchased my new truck, he was helping to admire it. He asked me what kind of fuel mileage I got. I replied, somewhere around 40mpg.
“Wow! That’s incredible!” he replied. There was a pause, as he thought about it, and then he said, “That’s not possible. How do you figure that?”
“Simple,” I replied. “I keep track of all the miles I go, and all the gas I use. I divide the gas into the miles.” (I should add, at that moment my commuter bike was leaning against the side of the truck.) It took a few minutes for the penny to drop. But the truth is, I spend only about half as much in gas for the distances I travel to work, the store, etc. In a year’s time, this amounts to a considerable savings.
So those are pretty good reasons to ride instead of driving. It’s also a lot more fun, and it’s good healthy exercise and mental therapy. But one of the bigger objections to bike commuting is often unvoiced. It’s the “image problem.”
In short, many folks won’t use the bike as a tool to get to work because, “People will think I’m a dork.” Let’s deal with that.
First off, people already think you’re a dork. If you ride, your friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers know it, and they think you are out of your mind. So you can relax. You aren’t going to hurt your image by riding a bit more and doing some practical good.
Besides, being thrifty is getting to be cool again. (It’s about time!) And your day will come. Let me illustrate.
Back in the early 1970s I was a rider. I rode to work. At that time, I did not work in the bicycle industry. My acquaintances all thought I was a total idiot, at best a goofy eccentric. Gas was cheap and plentiful. Cars were big, powerful, and fast. Then there was this complex political/economic thing, and the Arabs hit us with an oil embargo. Suddnely gas cost twice as much, and worse, it was almost impossible to get it!
Overnight, I went from being an idiot-eccentric to a guru. People thought what I did was cool, and they sought me out to ask me how to do it too.
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