Originally Posted by
Nightshade
"Utility" cycling and "Utility" cyclist in North America for the last 100 yrs
have been largely the poor and the odd balls due to the vast number of
cars on the roads. In Europe and the rest of the world these same cyclist
are viewed as "ordinary folk's" traveling in a "normal" manner.
The car culture in North America will take a long time to kill but die it must
as the cost to support the infrastructure and fuel issues will make the car
to expensive for the masses. These same masses will need mass transport
in the form of rail and busses with the road infrastructure modified to accomodate
more cyclist than ever before.
There will be pain in this change over but it's North America's fault so grin and
bear it. For now it will be tough to be on the leading edge of this painful change
but it's always that way for folk's on the leading edge of any change.
I hate to break this to you but there will never be an end to autos until autos are replaced by some other technology like anti gravity surfboards. Bicycles cannot, never could, never will be able to do all the things people use automobiles for and for the reasons they need those things done. Bicycles can help reduce dependency, can simplyfy life, can do many good things but one of them is not replacing automobiles for EVERYBODY, not ever going to happen ever.
LC