People asked me many times why I ride. I though about this many times and there is no single reason to it and I can never quite put it eloquently, I just... like it! It's complex, yet simple. It may take several paragraphs of explanation or just few words. What is it that makes me go out in the morning and ride in 20F weather with strong winds where people have hard time walking, or in pouring rain or in 90% humidity on a 90F day?
I enjoy driving too though. IMHO cars have place in life too and, like many other things, if used properly can enhance our life. But the American society developed a car fetish and succumbed to it. Thanks to Robert Moses and his hatred for human powered transportation and mass transit, thanks to greed and stupidity of auto industry and politicians USA has choked on traffic. We have underdeveloped rail system, poor mass transit because we are supposed to drive cars! Our highways are strangled by millions of tractor trailers and cars occupied by a single person!
We have become slaves of this system and bicycle, the most efficient machine known to humanity, lets us break away from it, become different, independent and better. It provides the ease of use, the utility, the flexibility and the feeling of freedom and control that is almost addictive. It makes us happier and healthier. It makes us feel like kids again.
Adam