I am car-lite. We are a one car family. I'm not anti-car, just pro-bike, but there is no such thing as a "green" car. Never will be. Some are just less wasteful than others and bicycles are, by far, less wasteful than any kind of motor vehicle.
My name is Charles and I live in Wakulla County, Florida. You have my permission to use that.
I am what I consider to be a utility cyclist. I almost never ride just to go for a ride. When I'm riding I have a destination and purpose in mind.
In addition to bicycle commuting to work, I also ride to do my hobbies; golf, hunting, fishing, canoeing/kayaking, etc.
Here are some representative photos of the three bikes and two trailers that I primarily use. You can use these potos if you wish.
My road bike and hybrid with flatbed trailer loaded for wade fishing.
The flatbed trailer hooked up to the road bike.
My primary boat and tow vehicle. This photo was taken last November. The canoe is loaded for bass fishing, jump shooting ducks and squirrel hunting.
With this set up I have the advantage of packing up the trailer and taking it and my tow vehicle with me if I want to take out somewhere else.
This is my set up for solo trips. When I take the family, I take the car. It just makes things much easier to get the wife and two kids there with a second canoe and all related gear, or a second canoe and a kayak.
By setting up my life this way, it saves us all the money related to owning a second car. Also by using a bike as my primary means of transportation, and by my work, it can cost me as little as nothing, on a per trip basis, to enjoy any of these hobbies. By extension this also equals free groceries when I am successful hunting and fishing, which is usually. On the ocassion that I come home with nothing in the cooler, that trip cost nothing but my time, which isn't wasted as I got another day on the bike and in the woods, on one of the local rivers, or on the bay.
I would like to see a tax incentive for bicycling. On a bike I don't contribute to traffic congestion, road wear, dependence on foreign oil, air, water or noise pollution, the chronic obesity problem and related outrageous medical care costs, etc. I think a tax incentive would increase the popularity of cycling and reinforce bicycles as viable transportation.
I also must admit to finding humor in, and getting a private laugh out of, passing a gas station when there's a large pick-up or SUV towing a large boat powered by hundreds of horsepower parked at the fuel pumps. There is a difference between going fishing to catch fish and going fishing to boat ride and burn gas.
The microcosm of it all is that I am physically fit and can see and watch the butterfly, rather than watch it smash on my windshield.