>>>>> Poor guy, he's out there in the snow again on his bike, when the fact is, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Dan<<<<<
Alot of people in my neighborhood feel the same way about me! They pity me since I don't have a car and use my bike in the rain, snow and cold weather. They used to laugh at me when I took out my 16' inch wheel folding bike but not anymore. They look at me now in pity. ;-(
Yet. You have to be insane if you think I'm going to spend $7,000 dollars a year for a car just to take trips to the mall!
I often feel sorry for women with children and the elderly who I see constantly waiting for the bus. I used to gloat when passing them on my bike but now I pity them. I used to be one of those long suffering bus commuters at one time who spent thousands of wasted hours waiting for that slow moving elephant to arrive. Not anymore. The bicycle liberated me from the bus. I still use trains but only in conjunction with my bicycle. In fact, the bicycle saves me a half an hour of walking to the train each day or about 4 days each year! It's one of the greatest secrets out there but very few people know about it. It's not the cost of the bus but the time wasted waiting that's puts a tremendous hardship on those that use that system.
I doubt this woman will take your offer on a free bicycle. You see folks. It's not the cost of the bicycle that keeps people from becoming cycle commuters but the fear that others will see them and consider them poor or strange. A man laughed at me the other day when he saw me carrying grocery bags on my handlebars. Yet, if I were using a shopping cart, no one would even take a second look. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to use a bicycle for transportation which is something we take for granted having become enlightened. Yet most of the population would rather wait an hour for a bus than be seen riding a bicycle to work.