Living Car Free - Curiosity

I was just at a party where again I found an ignorance among people about biking as transportation. It occurred to me that people don't explore their biking environment. People who have lived here for years and bike recreationally don't know basic things about the bike geography of the region. For example this guy didn't know that it is possible to cross the Potomac river on a bike trail. There are at least 3 crossings, a new one might have opened recently making 4. The guy crosses the river every work day but has apparently never turned his head to the side to see people biking across the bridges. Because the car culture is basically ignorant of how to get from point A to B by any means other than a car at the present time, a person considering car free living seems to need a little bit of curiosity. A car free person seems to need a spirit of exploration or at least be comfortable talking to other transportational cyclist in order to discover the bike routes. At some point in the future the car free way to move around will become common knowledge but for now you probably have to explore a bit. The internet doesn't help and may hurt. Map quest won't show that hole in a fence that everyone uses and google earth wont show those routes that move through culverts or under bridges.

That, to me, has been one of the true joys of being car-free: the opportunity to explore one's environment a little more carefully, and to be able, finally, to see and experience what's been in front of us in our own neighborhoods all this time. If nothing else, getting out of your car encourages you to pay attention to something other than the inside of your car and gigantic green & white signs.

In before my cycling, I used to cross many bike trails on a daily basis. I never even noticed they were bike trails. In fact, I did not knew that bike trails existed. Then I bought a bike and started going around the neighborhood and kinda found a trail...followed it for a few miles and came back home wondering how long was the darn thing.

Then I spent days/weeks making research on the internet... found miles and miles of trails... Now there's no trail in town I have not tried. I can also link them all using bike lanes, residential streets, etc. It's amazing how much infrastructure you miss when you are on a car, not paying too much attention to bikers.

You might be a little harsh in your judgments of people's ignorance. You put your finger on the matter with recreation cyclists. They bicycle for pleasure, and likely they ride where they know the lay of the land and that they are safe. They probably perceived their limitations in fitness and comfort as X miles for their weekly or monthly leisure ride... and that's it.

I agree that using a bicycle for transportation requires a degree of exploration, but then, many people who ride bicycles for transportation often just commute, and don't ride to explore.

People are still entitled to their choices without being called ignorant.

You might be a little harsh in your judgments of people's ignorance. You put your finger on the matter with recreation cyclists. They bicycle for pleasure, and likely they ride where they know the lay of the land and that they are safe. They probably perceived their limitations in fitness and comfort as X miles for their weekly or monthly leisure ride... and that's it.

I agree that using a bicycle for transportation requires a degree of exploration, but then, many people who ride bicycles for transportation often just commute, and don't ride to explore.

People are still entitled to their choices without being called ignorant.

gwd is correct in that they are ignorant. Ignorance indicates lack of knowledge, unfortunately the word gets misused and substituted for stupidity in many cases. Ignorance can be cured by education, stupidity cannot.

Aaron:)

Ignorance is a relative term. We are all ignorant (in the literal form) of many, many, many things in this world.

Only those with esoteric interest in a subject regard those who don't have an awareness of that subject or its nuances as being ignorant.

You see, its use carries with it the implication that people should be aware of something, when in fact there is no need for them to be aware at all -- vis a vis, the people who are quite satisfied riding their bicycles within areas that they are familiar with.

Frankly, I would rather the guy driving across the bridge in gwd's original post kept his eyes on the road rather than gawking at cyclists riding on a parallel MUP.

We can take a stance that because we use bicycles as our primary means of transport that others who ride bicycles must also be that way inclined, and if they are not, they are ignorant. As I said, people are still entitled to their choices -- not using their bikes as transport -- without being called ignorant.

Footnote: Yes, there is a bit of history here -- way, way back on these forums, people were subjected to horrendous beatings if they used the word "ignorant" in any form.

Commuters may not ride for the specific purpose of exploring, but it may well be a byproduct of, or a requirement for commuting. In my case, I hadn't had a bike for years until I bought one for commuting. I had been using public transportation, supplemented by the occasional rental car or a taxi ride. Taking up commuting by bike meant I would be exploring quite a bit, although I didn't expect that.

I didn't know much about the local MUP network at first. What was there to know, with car routes being the straight, fastest paths from A to B? MUPs following the car routes would be my choice, MUPs deviating from roads would be best left for other people. After riding like that for a week or so I started to realise the "deviating" paths often offered shortcuts and/or more enjoyable rides.

I did know the area well, it was just that I had a basically distorted map of it in my mind, built on the car routes. Rediscovering the area and its "correct" geography during the first summer was simply exhilarating. To this day I get a small flashback of that feeling when I try out new or unfamiliar bike routes.

--J

If I want to go somewhere, I go there. I'm not going to take a ten-mile detour just to gloat that I took a ten-mile detour.

gwd is correct in that they are ignorant. Ignorance indicates lack of knowledge, unfortunately the word gets misused and substituted for stupidity in many cases. Ignorance can be cured by education, stupidity cannot.

Aaron:)

I see what Rowan is getting at but its a cultural ignorance. People at my work come to me for help with software that I don't know how to use. I fiddle with it till I get it to do what they want. They think I know the software, I tell them "I just fiddle with it till it works." but they don't seem to hear me. Until the basic skills of car free living become common knowledge, the person new to it has to experiment and ask some questions. "I wonder where that path goes? " "I wonder if I can get this home on my bike, I'll give it a try and call a cab if it doesn't work out." Some car people don't seem to have that imagination, we see that here when they make ignorant posts- "You can't carry pet food on your bike." Is the classic one. The guy I was talking to had this flat out belief that he can't bike to work because as he put it "There is no way to cross the river." My original post about it was wrong, there are four paths and maybe a fifth I'm not sure if the fifth is open yet. Not because of my ignorance but my stupidity of not counting in my head carefully.

A good understanding of geography, and a drive to explore the environment are survival skills for many species, including humans.

Plus, it's fun. :)