Living Car Free - Influencing Others

I started to commute to work back in Jan and after about a month a person at work approached me asking about the logistics of riding to work. About a week later I noticed a new bike in the rack at work. I felt pretty good. About a month ago, I noticed another new bike in the rack. I don't know how much influence I had on the second person but I am feeling pretty good about it.

nice, i would get a real kick out of seeing some of the people at work ride a bike....it would never happen

I feel like the best thing you can do is simply ride your bike and show people it is possible to live life on two wheels.

I don't like the hard sell, but certainly when people ask I am happy to provide as much advice/help as I can.

Congrats on making a difference at your workplace.

I don't want to make everybody self-conscious but....

By posting on this forum we are influencing people. A lot of unregistered people lurk here. Some have later joined the forum, and I've gotten PMs from two people who said reading this board was a strong influence on their going carfree.

I don't want to make everybody self-conscious but....

By posting on this forum we are influencing people. A lot of unregistered people lurk here. Some have later joined the forum, and I've gotten PMs from two people who said reading this board was a strong influence on their going carfree.

It was for me. Reading about the solutions people came up with (like an xtracycle) and in general the reasons for doing so made the difference for me in just not using my car and actually selling it.

Now, to be honest I'm not car free. I'm car-light. My girlfriend has a car and we use that from time to time but we've dropped our car use dramatically in the last few months.

I doubt we'll ever be completely car-free, unless we moved to another city or the lightrail ever gets built but we end up driving < 25 miles/week in a car and biking well more than that, I think it's a good start.

I don't want to make everybody self-conscious but....

By posting on this forum we are influencing people. A lot of unregistered people lurk here. Some have later joined the forum, and I've gotten PMs from two people who said reading this board was a strong influence on their going carfree.

I got the guts to COMMIT to going car free
on this forum. And I will be VERY car light
for the rest of '06 and approaching Car Free
in '07. And I can't say why, other than it just
seems like the right thing to do.

That, and I wanna find a way to strike back
at HIGH GAS Prices, and show the world 'we'
don't need cars to live a fulfilling life.

Rock On Car Free Forum!

I think it's about making it look fun and enjoyable. I get comments all the time on my commuter. People want to ride it, to talk about it etc etc. We even bought extras so we can take people for rides after dinner at our house. We had a couple non bike couples over the other night and went for a ride after dinner and when we got back, they all hovered around the computer looking on the web for their own cruisers :) Get people hooked on biking for pure fun and it will build from there :)

Proof..

http://www.derekandsara.com/photos/may2006/gang.jpg

It was for me. Reading about the solutions people came up with (like an xtracycle) and in general the reasons for doing so made the difference for me in just not using my car and actually selling it.
.

I got the guts to COMMIT to going car free
on this forum. And I will be VERY car light
for the rest of '06 and approaching Car Free
in '07. And I can't say why, other than it just
seems like the right thing to do.
See...I told you so. :) And these aren't even the 2 who PMed me.

BTW, ned--
How's it going with the new "car"?

Today makes four weeks at my new job. There's one other guy that works there that rides to work about once a week, I think I've got him thinking he should do it more often. Another employee asked me the other day about cycling to work, what route I took, etc, and has ridden in once. She says she's not in good enough shape yet to do it every day, but she's going to try to do it more often. If these other two start cycling to work every day like I do, that will be 25% of our work force!

I read an article that said on average a cyclist (commuter etc) will cause 3 other people to take up cycling. Seems to work.

Since my dad started riding 2 years ago he has gotten at least 5 people into riding.

-D

Since I started at my job 9 months ago I've got 4 people that have started to use their bikes for commuting or errands at home. Of my friends, in the past year I've influenced a minimum of 5 to start using their bikes for utility, commuting, and fun. A guy at work emailed me the other day to say that he was at home and took his bike 3 miles to seven eleven. (even though it was to buy smokes) People are watching and listening to everything you do. Lead by example and with time people will follow.

I convinced a co-worker that lives just up the street from me to try commuting, next thing I know, it's a year later and he's trying to one-up me by becoming carfree to my car-lite. He hasn't used his car in nine months and is desperately seeking a buyer (he's upside down in it which make it a bit tougher).

It just makes me so proud, sniff, sniff.

BTW, ned--
How's it going with the new "car"?

I haven't taken delivery yet.
They have mine on order and
it will be built the first week
in July and shipped by about
the 21st or so...

I promise pictures on my website
when it arrives. And I am
getting a speedometer put on
it at the factory so we will know
the truth about how fast the
thing will go.

I know that about 15 years ago I knew a person who used to commute 14 miles each way - I thought it was a great idea - and of course - he was in great shape. That stuck with me so I have since then tried to figure out ways to combine bike riding with commuting and other stuff.

As a college student who lives off campus, I've been influenced by a few students and a surprising number of (well, 4 or 5, but it's a small school) faculty members -- three of them in my department -- who often bike to work, even during Rochester (NY) winters. I've recently acquired an old ten-speed, and plan to make cycling a habit including to/from school and between campuses, though I can walk or bus so it's not strictly necessary.

One student lives at least two miles away, owns a car, yet always bikes to school, and around town as well. Seeing him with or on his bike all the time has been like a seed planted in my mind, which is only now (entering my third year here) sprouting. Without the model of these few people, I probably wouldn't have given cycling much of a thought. Now, though none of them has ever approached me about cycling, I'm inspired to start biking even though I live close enough to school and to the grocery store to walk. (In fact, I've asked more than one of them about their experiences riding, especially during winter. And then they were eager to share tips and encouragement.)

The presence of this forum, and the abundance of web info about cycling and bikes, has also been a helpful influence.

By posting on this forum we are influencing people. A lot of unregistered people lurk here. Some have later joined the forum, and I've gotten PMs from two people who said reading this board was a strong influence on their going carfree.
I would never even have considered completely giving up a car before I started reading this forum, now I'm trying to find a job closer to home just so I can. :)

My brother and I go for rides on Friday and Saturday nights, and just within the last 2 months we've gotten two friends who have started joining us. Neither had ridden bikes or done any sort of exercise for many years, and tonight one of them is bringing his wife along. She saw how much fun he was having and wanted to try it herself. :D Just a month ago, the other friend could barely keep up with us going very slow (-11mph) for only 6 miles, and now he easily stays right with us for 13 or so miles at 14+ nearly the entire time. And that's with him riding my mountain bike and us on road bikes. Still not very far, but it's amazing how much he's improved in just a few rides. :)

Many people truly want to get in shape, they just haven't yet discovered a fun way to exercise. One of the many reasons bicycles rock. :D

I started working at a new company in late March. In the begining people were amazed that I rode a bike to work (and everywhere) every single day. Since then I've noticed two other people that have started riding regularly to work. This morning as I was leaving a guy was asking me about bikes, routes, gear and other things he would need to start bike commuting. And on my ride home I saw a co-worker riding his bike on the other side of the road on his way to work. I've learned that more people know me as "the bike guy" than by my name around the office, and I find that quite amusing. If I've been able to help people get started in living life on two wheels I'm very happy about it. And I have by no means told anyone they should ride, or really even brought it up, they always come to me with questions.

Oh, another influence on me. More for the idea of living car-free, than for biking, per se. A couple of months ago, this Candanian TV journalist and media critic, Barrie Zwicker, came to Seattle for a showing of one of his films (http://www.greatconspiracy.ca/). The person who introduced him mentioned that he and his wife have lived car-free for 40 years. That really impressed me.

Also, there was an article I read online about a year ago, about some guy (not Zwicker) who had voluntarily stopped speaking for (I forget) 20-30 years, and for a similar length of time neither drove a car nor rode in one. For a time I think he traveled the US on foot with a banjo, staying in people's houses along the way. On about the second day after he decided to start speaking again, he was hit by a car. When the ambulance came, he refused a ride to the hospital, saying he would walk. They looked at him as if he had been hit in the head or something, never suspecting that he had been refusing motor transportation for 20+ years, much less that he had only resumed speaking yesterday.

Unfortunately I can't find the article, but it was a fascinating read. I'm not about to copy him, but that kind of thing gets you thinking.