This morning the radio had an interview with some economist about oil. He actually said that people might start using bikes. Not the snickering comment like "Better dust off that bike." that a radio anouncer used last week, but as a serious statement. THEN, a few minutes later there was some program about Americans being too fat. At some point america's decision makers are going to put two and two together and get four. It seems to me that it becomes more likely that they'll do the right thing when they're presented juxtaposed facts as happened this morning. Unfortunately the program host didn't explicitly connect people powered transportation with helping on both issues at once. But, the president is a recreational rider if he were listening he would have been able to synthesize the information wouldn't he?
On a local level, the city has installed about 10 new bike racks in my neighborhood during the past week. A few years ago I found that the city would install bike racks in front of property for free if the owner gave permission. So I went ahead and gave permission for the rack in front of my place. It took them about a week to install it. It looks like the local businesses are beginning to request bike racks.
So this week we have car-free ideas bubbling up from the local level and being discussed seriously on a national radio program.
The BikeForums Team
-adv-
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I haven't heard anyone say it for decades, but: great oaks grow from little acorns.
Car culture didn't develop overnight. Around 1903, automobiling was seen as a sport for the rich, destructive of roads and disruptive to the community. Suitable roads hardly existed. Motorists were subject to a patchwork of local traffic codes, including for example complicated procedures for interacting with horses. There was no on-the-road support. It was necessary to carry plenty of spare fuel and a full toolbox.
It took twenty years for automobiling to even begin to penetrate mass consciousness, and another fifteen years for the average person to think of relying on cars for economic transportation.
I think it was titanic economic change in the 1930's and 40's that propelled car culture to dominance. The family farm system became unworkable. Everyone knows the story. What happened, eventually, is that the next generation of people abandoned the farms, bought cars and unbelievably cheap gasoline, drove to the cities, and went to work, first in war industries, and then later in civilian jobs.
Car culture was good for a while. It has perhaps grown to excess.
There is a huge, huge mural on the wall of the McDonald's which is inside my local Walmart. It's a slightly surrealistic rendering of the "1950s Happy Days" theme, a collage of basically car themes with weakly drawn generic human figures in gigantic, well-drawn fetish motorized vehicles.
The point is that it took fifty years for car culture to grow from a eccentric hobby into the dominant American way of life. Fifty years, most of a lifetime.
Now there are a handful of unreasonable folks who imagine it might be possible to live without cars. Absurd! Impossible! They must adapt to the world as it is! They can't change everything like that! Right?
CagerTools
Its going to happen. Bicycles are taking over!
Roody
I do see a lot more bikes ridden by commuter types here in my home town, where autos have been built since Oldsmobile, the first big auto company, was founded well over 100 years ago.
But we have so far to go. . . .
gwd
Its going to happen. Bicycles are taking over!
Today I went down to check out the DADA exhibit at the museum and all the bike parking was completely full. All the good signs and posts and trash cans were taken too. The weather was perfect and someone was having an assembly on the national mall for Darfur but still I've never seen so many bikes parked at the museum. Its another good sign when good bike parking is hard to find in a part of town where it has always been easy before. Some of the people who successfully used their bikes for transportation today might get the idea that they can do so again. Then again. Then who knows some might log in here asking about car free living.
genericbikedude
At some point america's decision makers are going to put two and two together and get four.