WalksOn2Wheels

Ok, so I'm not car free by any means. Car-"lite" at best. The wife has a car and when we go somewhere together, it's in the car. I'm not exactly an anti-car nut, though I haven't personally owned one for years (motorcycle commuter before committing to bicycles), however I do love my motorcycle and enjoy watching "Top Gear".

But Thursday, I happened to be walking through a parking lot and realized that among a sea of cars, I'd have to believe that not even half of those come 10 miles from beyond school. And I thought to myself, "Wow, look at all these resources to get a person from point A to point B."

Just think about all the metal and plastic, and the R&D work, shipping them in crates overseas and then by train or truck or both, and all the work into refining the gas and oil, replacing tires, filters, wipers etc. And not to mention making car payments as a student, and all that money tied up in financing and insurance.

All that when they probably could have biked in. And yet I still hear people who live close by ***** about parking and traffic.


And then I remembered myself as a freshman...

Now this was back in '01. I took some time off before going back a year ago. But back then, I had a 66 Mustang V-8 that got like 15 mpg and when I complained about parking, I remember being told that freshman were actually encouraged to leave their cars at home. I cried foul, of course. I remember driving across campus to an 8 a.m. class just because I was too lazy to get up early enough to walk there. For reals. Seriously, how lame.

So this realization has helped level my view of people I would otherwise consider "wasteful". However, I did have a friend move recently who should be a lot closer to school now. I'm going to encourage her to bike in and see what she thinks. I've mentioned it to her before, and she seems intrigued, so since it's warming up and she just moved a week ago (I talked about this before she moved), I'll have to mentioned it again.

It was just a reminder to me that no matter how silly I may find some car commuting habits, I've done worse, and people can change.

nashcommguy

Well spoken...er, I mean posted. Self-realization is the best reflection. It takes the arrogance of being right out of the equation. Taking a look around one's environment sometimes can point the arrow of conviction right back at one's self. Thank providence you're in a place to be able to have an effect of changing one motorist at a time.

All the things you pointed out about the resources needed to get those beasts from A to B is a small practice of yoga. One is encouraged to pick up a piece of fruit and 'contemplate the apple' as it were. Understand what it took to grow it and to pick it. Get it to market and ultimately into your hand. When able to see things from that perspective one begins to look around more and more. The incredible amount of waste can get overwhelming.

I do what I can do and try to allow my actions to speak. But if I'm asked re cycling, commuting, etc. I wont let 'em off the hook for anything under 20 miles one way. Too far to bike to your job? Then move. That's what I did.

Ipedaltahoe

I live in a town that is litterly 10 miles long...maybe. Sure we get tons of snow but whatever, most people I know have at least two cars in their families. I gave up the car 2 years ago, sure I still need it ocassionally. Cant ride to Carson City for a Costco run on my bike. Though I keep thinking of a way to do so. Or take my disabled mom to the drs. Keep trying to find a way to do that too. Today though was a milestone. We have had numerous feet of snow over the last couple of days and today I had to run errands. After helping my husband clear snow I got ready to go out and my husband asked if I was taking the car or the bike. I said bike and he was like ok. No why in the question, he has accepted that I ride in all weather, he has accepted my choice.
Yes!!!

tjspiel

That's great

tjspiel

I an epiphany like that a few years ago. I was sitting outside eating lunch at a little out of the way restaurant near downtown. It was a busy day for me so I didn't get there until mid afternoon, well after the the normal lunch crowd had left.

Even though it was a nice day, there weren't that many people around. Like I said, it was a little out of the way so that definitely was part of the reason. Nevertheless cars lined both sides of the street. There wasn't one available meter. In fact, looking around, I could see all kinds of cars. There was parking garage nearby that held even more of them. There was maybe 2 or 3 people in my line of site, but god knows how many cars.

Can't say why it never hit me before like it did that day, but cripes, we sure do devote a lot of space and other resources to the automobile.

Captain Blight

I like to think I do my part just by being out there almost every day. I got in like 255 days in a row and then had to take this stupid trip for my job. I've been off the bike for 3 days now and I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy. Can't wait to get back on the wheel, I'm afraid I'm probably going to binge a little and I'm worried I'm going to hurt myself. Which is a way of leading up to saying that being my own engine for the past 4 years has taught me a lot about efficiency. I can think of very few reasons where I'm going to need 150+ HP and a ton and a half of rubber and steel to strap to my ass just to get across town. What a waste. How stupid.

O yeah, I think it's cool that you ride in the Sierra snow, Tahoe. That's a lot more white stuff to deal with than I ever will. We might get 5 feet all winter long, for you that'd be a really decent blizzard.

kjmillig

Just a couple of days ago I got in a small argument with my neice who was complaining about the high prices of gasoline on he FB page. Other friends were suggesting where to check for lower prices. I simply said, "Downsize your vehicle." I might as well have called her a dirty word. She got very defensive saying the she "just got her SUV" (Chevy Trailblazer), and she wasn't going to downsize until all her kids are grown. That's a long time from now since she's in her late 20s and has 2 very young children.
I used to be a big fan of full sized vans, station wagons, minivans, but I've come to realize that I just don't need something like that, and that I can get to work and run errends on human/electric assist power.

FlashBazbo

Yeah, the best part of bicycle commuting is that it allows us to feel self-righteous and to be entitled to tell everyone else what to do. (a/k/a be a PITA)

Sorry to be a tad snarky, but all the self-righteousness takes the fun out of it for me. Live and let live. Life is too short to try to control everybody else.

Grim

Love my car and almost bought a Porsche 2 weeks ago. Work had me on the road 4 days last week and about 600 miles. Loved drivign the back roads and seeing the small forgotten towns.

I ride my bike for health. I don't center my life around it (but it is a big part of what I enjoy) or telling people they are wrong for taking the car. I had visions of doing the grocery shopping on bike when I got back into riding a couple years ago. Got a trailer and never used it. Hauling a 40lb bag of dog food in traffic just never sounded fun even with my local Grocery being less then 2 miles up the road. I'm still not about to have my 10 year old riding down a packed 4 lane to school. My wife is terrified of riding on the street and refuses to ride out of our neighborhood. We load up the van with the bikes and drive 30 minutes to the MUP when we go on a "Family ride".

If I lived in town close to things maybe it would be different but I live in Suburbia in a state know for not being bike friendly and lacking side walks in many areas making foot travel between many places dangerous.

I will soon have a MUP that with some luck (land access and funding) will literally run through the back of my neighborhood. It will get a lot of use by me I can assure you. Last year this time I thought it was going to be my new way to work but my office moved closer to me. Now its going to be my way to make a few extra miles a day to make up for the ones I lost on my commute.

Now if you will excuse me I am going to go get in a Sunday ride and hopefully not get hit by a "Noseeum" on their way to church.

Santaria

I have a wife and four kids. She doesn't ride.

So I have a mini-van. It's the four-cylinder version that I bought used for $2000. We're up to 300,000 miles on it, and I take pride in keeping it running for her.

I commute 7 days a week in some form via my bike, but that doesn't change the reality of my family's life.

9 year old has to get to class in the morning. We've tried walking the mile and it worked out fine. Then my wife started her class. Son has to be to school at 7:15 a.m. Wife has to be across town (4 miles) by 7:30. At 10:50 a.m. she gets out of her last class and I have to be at m 11 a.m. class.

So we've come up with a way to make that work.

We all get up and I drive the 1 mile to my son's school, drop him off. We then drop my wife off, and I keep the two little ones with me - we go home. At 10:30 we load up my commuter on the rack and drive to the university. My wife and I literally pass each other at the driver's door.

I get on the commuter and race across campus to my class. The rest of my day is on the bike (about 7-10 miles worth of riding across campus to classes, or to work, home for lunch and then back to work).

She, on the other hand, still has to go pick up my son.

So her van's daily mileage is around 15 miles a day. There isn't an alternative we haven't looked at that would work.

Can't push the stroller to the school in the afternoons. There are zero sidewalks on the mile between where my son attends and where I live. There is no "option b" route. There is no bus service on this part of town. I even had one of the grizzled old veterans at the paper I work for tell me "back when I was a drunken gambler who would cross into Matamoros and bet on the dogs at the track ... there was one place I wouldn't walk day or night ... too dangerous." If you guessed that dangerous area he was talking about was the part of town that my wife would have to walk, you'd be correct.

In the end, I'm a huge advocate of having a smaller footprint. I ride a used 25 year old road bike as my commuter, carry everything I need in one bag. But ultimately, I can not absolve myself of every "resource" sin.

I have a 2010 Cannondale CAAD9-5. I know that oil was used in the tires, that there was fuel used in the machinery, energy and even employees ability to get to work to produce it. I intend to ride it for 30 years and make every last ounce of "resource" count.

But ultimately, we can't zero out our ecological footprint. All we can do is try to do our best and give 100 percent effort in that endeavor. What we shouldn't do is spend any percentage of our effort worrying about what the other guy is doing, because anything less than 100 percent for ourselves is cheating.

exile

The thing is we can all change our habits. It may take some time, or gain some specialized knowledge, or simply have the will power and desire to do so. The point is most of us have changed out of necessity or desire, or perhaps a little of both.

genec

What control... the whole thread up to this point was about how much resources we devote to moving people around in these very inefficient huge boxes... Not to mention how much space in our cities and lives we devote to the automobile. Frankly it is ridiculous.

snowman40

I'm not a Ford guy, but driving a 66 Mustang V8 shouldn't be considered wasteful. I would say you were enjoying yourself, just like I would enjoy myself if I was fortunate enough to have a 69 Camaro Z28 (the cost of premium be damned!!!!!). As for parking, I would have gotten up early and went for a drive (owning an early gen muscle car and not hooning to an extent is wasteful!) and stole a good spot.

Just because you are more sensible in your commuting, doesn't mean you can't enjoy cars....

crhilton

I don't know your relationship with her, but I can tell you that I don't appreciate when parents, aunts, and uncles involve themselves in my fb posts.

Also, I'd be annoyed if someone told me to sell the car I just bought as well. You lose a lot of money just buying a car.

crhilton

So go somewhere else.

cpt. Howdy

Well then you might as well delete them from your friends list, because that is what Facebook is for, social networking.

crhilton

Then they complain. I was simply trying to point out why he may get an angry response, aside from the usual reasons having to do with the topic.

Doohickie

I didn't own a car until I graduated college and moved to L.A. Even then, I ended up bicycle commuting because my wife got the car most days. I remember finally buying a second car; I was no longer "trapped" at home when my wife was not home. Now I'm working on getting back to car lite. So it goes.

earth2pete

something about bike commuting (and i don't think it's bad) made me see how wasteful cars are.

my ex-wife has severe arthritis and can't ride, so i understand bikes aren't for everyone. but that doesn't change that i can't help but look at a sea of cars and think, 'ugh...'

Bud Bent

This part of Texas is so automobile-centric, just navigating the traffic is always a reminder of just how wasteful it all is. When I ride in the rural areas around here, in the evening or on a weekend, I'm always surprised at how many vehicles pass me, then just turn around and go back the way they came. They're either all lost, or driving around just to be driving around.

But what's always amazed me most is how many people here live 30 to 50 miles away from work, and don't think twice about making that drive every day. Crowley, where I live, is at the southwest edge of the DFW metroplex. When you start talking to local people, it's amazing how many of them work across the metroplex from here. Talk to employees in stores here, and they all live across the metroplex from here. If they'd just all trade houses and work closer to where they live, it would save a bunch. I never quite figured out the attraction of living so far from where you work.

ItsJustMe

Next time you see a major football game, imagine how much resources went into getting all those people there then back home again. Include the carbon footprint of ten thousand hotel rooms while you're at it.

genec

I was raised in Fort Worth... and the thing that still gets me when I go back to visit family is why one area of town has more "prestige" than another area when there is little inherent value to any particular area over another.

Why for instance is Tanglewood considered upscale to Wedgewood... My sister lives off of Bryant Irvin Road in the Ridglea area, and a short distance away is Como... considered "the other side of the tracks." Granted, the neighborhoods have a different makeup of homes, but that came over time... there is no inherent value of one area over another that something like proximity to ocean or mountain view might occur some other town. In fact where I grew up in Wedgewood is now considered a not too great part of town.

I can see the advantages of living near the Trinity River or a large golf course or some other feature, but otherwise... the value of areas in town just doesn't make sense.

Yeah my brother drives all over the place... living in the southwest corner near the Weatherford traffic circle, yet working in Alliance... and he complains all the time about "the traffic."