UScyclistSW

So many reasons why people need to switch to bikes, so much motive and yet I hardly see anyone out there actually doing it! We need to spread the word, it is partly all of our faults as cyclists that there are not more folks out there making the switch! Inform everyone you can, get your co-workers on board, let them know your experiences, trial and tribulations from the world of cycling. If you know someone who wants to get started, or yourself are ready to make a more full time switch to a bike, please check out a site I have been working on, it is linked in my signature. Cycling is my passion, I honestly believe we can make the right step in the right direction to get more awareness towards the biking lifestyle.

AdamDZ

Tell that fat bozo with gold chains driving a Suburban with polished rims and rubberband tires that he needs to ride a bike. Let me know if you succeeded.

Roody

You might want to start with a lower hanging fruit. Try convincing the person driving the old Honda Civic who is having a hard time paying for the gas for that. I think this time of sky-rocketing gas prices is a great opportunity to get more people interested in everyday cycling.

I've noticed that the car commercials on TV have been totally rewritten, and almost all of them now are bragging about their so-called "fuel economy." It would be great to have commercials for a truly economical vehicle--the bicycle.

Artkansas 

You're kind of preaching to the choir here. We've already been doing what you suggest for years or decades. It's a pretty complex situation. A Catch 22.

We need more cyclists to get better facilities. We need better facilities to get more cyclists.

Welcome.

bluegoatwoods

I'm sorry to be cynical and jaded, but you're just going to wear yourself out to no purpose. They know that they really should be riding as well. But they don't want to. So they won't do it until they're forced. (I'm not necessarily in favor of force. But that's what it'll take.)

I think that's why, by the way, they are hostile or condescending or insist that we're crazy. It absolves them of responsibility. But that's a bit off-topic.

You can try to convert your neighbors and co-workers, but they won't forgive you. You'll end up first on the lay-off list, for instance.

We're all proud of setting a good example. But evangelists have little to show for their pains.

gerv 

I saw that dude on a Trek last week. It worked!

Spandex base layers, gold chains, large bozo posterior....

wahoonc

Around here they go from clapped out cars to "scooters" aka mopeds, in NC under 50cc does not require licensing or insurance.

Aaron

AdamDZ

Yup, most people would go to scooters first or take mass transit IMHO if they can't afford to gas up their cars any more. It'd be probably easier to get a junkie off of his drugs than most people off of their gas addiction. Plus, keep in mind that not everybody is capable of riding a bicycle, and it largely depends on where they live too.

Finally, car is a status symbol for many and/or compensation mechanism for their deficiencies and they won't give that up easily.

Suburban

I worked for a rental car for years. I learned something that hadn't occurred to me before. Customers flying in from the states would go absolutely ballistic Canada when they didn't get what they thought they had reserved. They reserved mid size and full size but the standards are different from the US. Midsize in Canada would be Cavalier or Sunfire. Full size would be a Taurus. Looking at the luggage and person, most of the time a compact or subcompact would have been more than enough.

I watched other situations and saw a pattern develop. This wasn't specifically Americans having an issue. A lot of people saw the vehicle they drove as being a sign of their status within society. So when I handed them keys to Cavalier, I hadn't just handed them a car that was a downgrade from what they expected. It had deeper meaning for them than it did for me. I couldn't find another explanation for the reactions I received.

It was strange for me because I might drive Focus one day and a Jaguar the next. For those of us working there driving vehicles from location to location, the cars had no attachment to us. We changed vehicles too many times in one day for us to see them as an extension of our identity or we'd be downright schizophrenic. I didn't own a vehicle, I caught a ride with the manager who changed vehicles every week. Society attaches too much meaning to a tool.

wahoonc

Yup...

I rent quite a few vehicles as a matter of course for work. I have been told by my office that is certain situations that I AM NOT to show up for the appointment driving the super econonbox, it is to be an upscale vehicle. Personal preference is a Ford Focus, Escape or Fusion, they are the most comfortable of the rental car fleet cars for me, the Chevy's and most other stuff is uncomfortable for me to drive.

Aaron

Smallwheels

Unless you are an evangelist with a perpetual optimism machine, you will burn out trying to save the world by preaching. I've even preached to people about a cancer cure. Not many people want to hear it. Even people with cancer just shut me out. Imagine that.

I have no idea how we humans construct our personal blinders but I know they exist. That is why I just do my thing and answer questions when people ask about bicycling or other things. Once they ask I mildly lead them to logic. Just because someone asks doesn't mean they are ready to make the change. At least they get some good information so when the switch in their minds clicks they'll have a clue about it.

Ekdog

I think soft selling is the way to go. People will rarely be transformed on the spot, but if you plant a seed in their minds, they'll sometimes come around sometime in the future.

Underground

I used to be really attached to vehicles, not so much anymore. Now I get attached to bikes. hahaha

Roody

If you don't want to preach, then teach.

Many people don't know much about bikes as transportation. For example, when I tell people I ride 2 miles to work, some of them think that's a long ride. I explain that it takes less than 10 minutes, and even if you're in bad shape it won't tire you out. I tell them that a moderately paced bike ride irequires the same fitness as a brisk walk. People are are genuinely surprised. They are also surprised when they see bike lights, panniers, and other equipment that makes transportation riding easier. Some people even freak out when they see me riding in the same cloothes I work in, and not wearing a helmet.

AdamDZ

I think people have no sense of distance and the work/energy required to traverse that distance because they're so used to machines carrying their butts around. People are routinely floored when they hear I ride 8 miles each way to work. I often get so irritated by their shocked expressions. Then I tell them: "Yeah, and then I ride 60 miles on Saturday for fun...". I mean, people would wait 10 minutes for a bus to go 20 blocks from the subway station to my place of work. If I don't ride, I just walk that distance in about the same time.

Smallwheels

Time is how I impress people. I say that any grandma that can get on a bicycle and pedal slow, can ride at ten miles per hour. At that rate it only takes six minutes to go one mile.

If you pump it up just a little bit and ride at twelve miles per hour you travel one mile in only five minutes.

Somebody that is a bit fit can pedal at fifteen miles per hour. At that speed it only takes four minutes to travel one mile. That's not racing speed but it's the speed you can go if you're fit.

How many miles away from work do you live? Multiply that many miles by how fast you want to go and you'll figure out how quickly you can get everywhere you want to go.

Artkansas 

I live at an apartment complex that is caddy-corner to a convenience store. I watched my neighbor drive to the convenience store and back. I double-checked the distance on Bikely. Apparently, the entire round trip is 1/4 of a mile, a 5 minute walk.

DX-MAN

Art, that's my sister's husband in a nutshell. A trip I routinely make with the kids, a 2-1/2-block 'hike' to Walgreens, he seemingly cannot make on foot! He HAS to drive!

He's had a heart attack, his liver is bad, he has spinal deterioration that has cost him over two inches of height, his blood pressure spikes dangerously at least a couple times a month -- yet he's convinced he will whup ass on anybody who tries him (he's about to be 63). He has told me:

"I know you like 'em, but bikes ain't sh**."
"You really need to grow up and buy a car."

I built him a bike; he says he treasures it because it's a gift from me. Since being built for him in 2008, it has fewer miles on it than I've put on my month-old Kona. He complains about gas prices, complains more about needing to fix his gas-hog van "in case the family needs to go out of town", then lights a cigarette.

At least he quit drinking; it was debatable what was gonna kill him first, the booze, his wife, or me. He's a MEAN drunk.

B. Carfree

Having watched a small city with mediocre facilities become the world's bicycle capital and then continue to add more facilities while the bikes all went away, I'm not so sure we need the facilities. I think we need education, not just about bikes, a sense of community, and traffic law enforcement, though not necessarily in that order. I find most facilities to be of marginal benefit, at best. YMMV.

Artkansas 

While I agree that what you say is needed, is needed. I think that you may be unaware of what brutal streets that some people ride on. Mediocre would be a great improvement. Little Rock is far from the worst that I have heard of, but I know bicycle activists who refuse to ride the streets here because they consider them too dangerous.

dynodonn 

I've seen some of Eugene's bicycling infrastructure, I'd be happy to even have a third of it's cycling infrastructure here in my locale, love the bike bridges.

cabledawg

I use my vehicles as tools. If I can ride, I will. But I drive to work because, frankly, some of the roads are dangerous in a vehicle, I sure wouldnt ride them on a bike. But I need the vehicles get the family around comfortably and haul large items from time to time. I'm downsizing my fleet and looking to get an economy vehicle, but for now I drive the trucks. And I'll pay the gas for as long as I can. We just get smarter about driving. We dont do 70+ onthe highway and we'll combine doc appts and such to make fewer trips out. We've already taken grocery runs to about 90% on bike.

I think there are alot more folks that would try biking were it not for long commutes or weather or other logistical concerns (for me it's the kids and their limitations). But remember that we cant go completely without vehicles. So many "car-free" folks still use vehicles, just not ones they own. Rentals, mass transit, bumming rides. That's not car-free, that's just car ownership-free.

StanSeven

First I commute by bike when I can. I also ride in the evenings when I don't bike commute plus ride on the weekends for fun and enjoyment. But some here fail to realize not everyone can ride for their work commute. Some live too far. Others need to leave work on short notice to take care of children. Still others need to go on work appointments during the day that can only be done in a car. Then it's already been pointed out some people have too dangerous a route for commuting.

Newspaperguy

The other day, a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses showed up at my door, doing what you suggest. The only difference was they were discussing religious faith and not cycling. They were polite and respectful. I had no complaint with the way in which they conducted themselves. But I'm not convinced it was the most effective way for them to advance their cause. I'm more interested in what I see in action than in the arguments made to advance their cause.

Likewise, my friends and neighbours don't really care what I say to them about car-free or car-light living. The arguments aren't going to sway them. What may bring about a change is what they see.

The people in my town seldom see me in a car, but they often see me walking or cycling to get around. Some of them are interested in a lifestyle less dependent on fuel, but before they consider making the switch, they want to see if it is possible. That's where people like me are most effective. When we're out on foot or on our bikes, we cannot be ignored. Some will eventually ask a few of the questions about logistics — riding at night, coping with rough weather, carrying loads or dealing with traffic — because we have experience with those things.

Once those questions are understood, it becomes easier to make the switch from the car to other forms of transportation.

cabledawg

We also get the same thing when we go grocery shopping. We have a pair of Xtracycles and while loading up to go home, many people will stop and ask questions or simply state "That's cool". If you want to win hearts, it's not about preaching fire and brimstone, it's about walking the walk (or biking the bike?) and not just talking the talk.