That the overall upshot of me commuting by bike (e.g., the small but nonzero environmental benefits) coincides with my personal politics is nice, but that in itself is not a political statement and it's not the reason I ride. I commute by bike because it's fun, cheap, and good exercise (pretty much in that order).

What politics?

I am a conservative. I conserve my money from the lemmings on the health club, from my car mechanic, from the gas station, from the parking meters, and a host of other examples of where my car use money may go that I do not care to mention.

Implications = I like being lean and mean and I like to pay the right price for stuff.

America is driven by money, image and status in the form of a car.
There is little money to be made by buying or selling them.
There is a stereotype of most riders as homeless or Lance, there is no media image to sell us.
You cannot communicate the implied brand/type superiority of a bicycle.
It is incomprehensible to the average person: someone would choose to bicycle instead of drive. Regardless of your political/advocacy/automobile beliefs, the visual evidence of your choice, through a car window is pure politics. Approx 1/3 of our economy is scared everybody could do that and ruin strip malls and drive thru's for everybody, not to mention the Fake Tan Industry.

I like to think that I'm leading by example, but the only thing I know for sure is that I will die with a clean conscience, and probably with tire marks on my back. :D

Ha ha ha! Trolling is good times. :p

I live in a bit of a weird political demographic: San Diego. Lots of liberal California-type elements and yet it's offset by the military-base conservative types. San Diego tends to be seen as conservative within California and liberal when viewed from a national perspective. I read the news, thats what they tell me. I'm very prone to suggestion.

Where am I going with this? I don't know but I would guess that 80% of the riders (meaning actually on their bikes, pedaling...) I meet here are conservative (I talk to other riders at lights, while riding, parks etc) and most of the suvs with brand-spankin new bikes (still have the little moulding nipples on the tires) strapped to them have lefty stickers on the bumpers. I'm still buggin on all the suvs with left-leaning, save planet stickers here. Seems like it should be some form of irony or other word i don't totally understand.

I appreciate a good troll like any other internet dope but I'm actually very liberal and still made this unscientific observation. My personal commuting choice is: 1. fun 2. save money 3. not give money to foreign powers that hate me/us 4. save planet/chose not to do any more damage than is possible.

I hope you didn't believe that foolishness.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily stereotypes are perpetuated.

+1 I've been to places up North where they ask if we have indoor plumbing in the South. That type of cluelessness is kind of infuriating. :mad:

It is everywhere. I had a person from NJ seriously remark that she thought we all still road horses to work, had teepees everywhere, and openly carried guns in holsters. Boy was she suprised.

I like it...I like it a lot...

(But the "ha, ha" part might be a little strong, don't you think? :D )

Yes, among other things.

Well, notice I said that she herself was from Georgia. I think even a native, but I'm not sure. And probably half kidding. Anyway, I'm sure it varies according to your exact location. There's places here in Maine where the same might be true, and places where it wouldn't.

For me, going sans auto is all about freedom. I've turned my back to the vast majority of American values (consuming, cars, clothes, vanity, and that crazy idea of working 50 weeks a year). Except for my job, I have nothing holding me down. No car payments, no insurance, house payments, not a lot of possessions. That's freedom to me.

I once heard maturity define as the ability to deny yourself pleasure.
In my case, I'm trying to be financially mature.
Not buying all this crap now to have awesome time later.

So I guess I'm "pro rad adventures" and "anti-2 thousand pounds of metal."

Plus, I like the eco-friendly, no blood for oil, question combustion, no less SUV, give me latic acid or give me death, hippie type benefits of riding.

peace, love, and all that *****,

Sean

Yeah, I live with my mom too.

Agreed.

You can't stop making political statements, even if you wanted to avoid making a statement.

Some of us made political statements a generation ago by marrying outside of our race, or by trying to live in certain neighborhood. We were just minding our own business, but that's not what "everyone else" thought.

Same with cyclists.

for the record, it's a detached garage from the main house...so technically not in the same house :)

Commuting is great fun & it keeps me trim & young at heart. If there is a political statement it would be: Just saving a bit more oil for the Bradleys & A10s! Or how about: You're not getting any gas tax money from me, so find some other way to fund your social engineering.

Rosa Parks was NOT an unintentional political figure, she had been involved in the struggle for civil rights for years, and made a definite, intentional political statement by not getting up.

(sorry I know this is way late and off topic, sorries)

hmm. not in the sense that i imagine i'm having some kind of dialogue with the ambient culture. not even in the sense that i feel like i'm having a monologue at them. definitely i don't bike in order to communicate with anybody, which is probably a good thing. but sure; at the same time i know perfectly well that they see me out there and it manifests something to them. i don't engage or invest much in what that something might be, since i have no insight and no control over their interpretation. i've found out several times how wrong i can be making the same interpretations of other bike commuters; many of them have motives that mean nothing to me and some have motives i really dislike. and the ones who have the same motives as mine about bike commuting could still turn out to be people i wouldn't cross the street to spit on in some other equally relevant political/social context. i guess at the least i do make a manifestation of possibilities to the general world. but every driver who goes by me is doing that too; they're displaying that it's possible to own/drive x or y car in x or y manner. doesn't make me go back to the drawing board on my own life and values when i see that.

on the other hand, i frequently give my fellow adults too much credit for having expanded their mental horizons and view of the world from where it was set for them in junior high, so maybe i'm wrong and i'm more of a message than i tend to think.

My son in Colorado makes his political statement by driving 3 hours to the mountains so he can ride his bike.

He hee! I'm glad you took that for the joke it was. I caught some criticism from the guys at work for that one. They felt it was mean-spirited. Advice for the masses: When you strike out from home to make a big name for yourself in the world, don't get married, lose your job and move into your parents house with your new bride and 9 bikes. Hurts the ol' self esteem. :(