Specialized fan

Well the thinking here is in the minority, it is how ever fascinating never the less. I choose a big vehicle for safety reasons as riding a bike in my part of the world can be dangerous, if I'm going to risk my life it should be worthwhile. I am one of the ones that have been there done that not going back. I just find the anti car thinking weird.

kjohnnytarr

So your response to living in an area that makes you feel unsafe isn't to move away, but just to hide inside a little metal cage every time you leave your home...and you think I'm weird?

scattered73

I was in the Rita evacuation of Houston, this was before going carfree. I tried driving which was pointless because I could get no gas. After sitting hour and a half in traffic only to move about a 1 mile, I turned around and went home when I heard that most routes were out of gas over the radio. People resorted to pushing their cars. I ended up booking a flight the next day. Airline was the way to go, except I had to illegally park my car at a shopping center, because all airport parking private and public lots were full, luckily it didn’t get towed. If it happens again I would bike to my parent’s new house in a neighboring small town about 40 miles inland from my apartment, they just moved from west texas. I bet anything I could get there as fast, if not faster than a car. Large evacuations are nightmare traffic wise because you are limited to the road and the availability of GAS.

truepeacenik

what is continuing to evade me is WHY someone needs to post pro car in here.
It's like steak lovers trolling in vegetarian forums (and I believe I have read god-given right there, too)

If you love your car, fine. drive it. But don't come in here like you are smarter than us, richer than us or whatever is getting you off about being in here.

want to understand? then ask, don't try to start fights.

you have crappy net manners.

see ya at the end of suburbia.

JeffS

Just as most of us find the pro-car thinking weird.

The only difference is most of us don't go trolling car forums advocating bicycles/trains/buses.

Artkansas 

Well, it's not like riding a bicycle elsewhere doesn't have its risks. Bicycling is worthwhile.

Just because your vehicle is bigger doesn't make it safer. SUVs have tremendous roll-over rates. They are also perilous in ice or snow. My bicycle is much more stable on ice and snow. If a big vehicle for safety is your standard, you should give up that puny SUV for a full-on semi-truck or perhaps a Bradley M3A3. Both would be safer than your SUV.

The oil embargo in the '70s influenced me. I was car-free back then and I saw the impossibly long lines at gas stations that made car ownership ridiculous. I was at community college then, and despite the fact that I traveled farther than anyone else in class to get to class during that time, I was the only one with a perfect attendance record. I know I traveled further, because not only was I out of district, but I was actually two college districts away. Why couldn't the drivers make it to school? Most of them were within walking distance of school.

I was reinforced in that thinking one night in L.A. when driving to my father's house 40 miles away. Traffic was bad enough that I realized that I would have been able to ride my bike there faster. That was over 20 years ago. I don't think that traffic has gotten better in the interim.

Our thinking may be different than yours, but labeling it as weird is pretty ignorant. Don't knock it till you really understand it. The car-free lifestyle is as old as civilization. I think that you are fascinated by us because a little voice inside your head says that we are right. We have the long view, not the wrong view.

You also call it anti-car. It is not. No one is perfectly car-free in their lifetime. But we realize that a car is just a tool. Just a tool with limited use. Just a tool that is radically overused. I have neighbors who will drive from our apartment building to the local convenience store. The local convenience store is catty-corner to the apartments. Others drive from their apartment to the laundry room. A distance of perhaps 20-100 feet.

Living car-free is a goal, a day to day goal. Some days I am car free, all my transportation needs can be met by a bike, bus or train. Other days I must use a car. But I try to avoid it when possible.

aMull

lyeinyoureye

I think everyone should have a military transport vehicle, "just in case".

kjohnnytarr

Looks like some people in your area are getting along better with their bikes than the people with cars, SpecFan. I found this on DrunkCyclist:

From today’s Los Angeles Times coverage of the Southern California wildfires:

Newspaperguy

In other words, progress, not pefection.

Automobiles have been in the mainstream for a little less than 100 years. In that time frame, we've seen drastic changes in our social structure. Today, there are some areas and some conditions where a car is no longer only a convenience but a necessity as well. (Even in those cases, cars are often badly overused.) The conditions that brought about our car culture won't change overnight.

However, if enough of us look for and use car-free and car-light alternatives, we will begin to see some positive changes. And perhaps those changes are beginning to happen.

Sammyboy

That I am! Of course, I actually believe that I have a right to own a car, and a right to use one when neccesary, but that I ought to use my bike as much as is practical, which I do, and is a lot. The difference is, I don't neccesarily come to a forum focussing on car-freedom, and preach about why not having a car is stupid. I come here because I want to use my car less, and the people and ideas here can help and inspire me to that. I don't pretend to be car-free, but I also don't try to start a riot with those who are.

Roody

People like you are the backbone of this forum. People like Specialized fan are just a pain in the back!

jamesdenver

Good golfing too.

Cosmoline

Wait until there's a nine pointer and see how well your big SUV copes with roads like this:



My bike, trailer and all, would be around that hole no problem. Or even down through it if need be.

Cosmoline

I agree! Esp. one that requires no fuel, minimal maintenance and can go over virtually any terrain from mountains to swamps.

East Hill

Yesterday my husband and I were out mushroom hunting (hurrah, finally found some chanterelles ) on Weyerhaeuser property. This property is gated, due to vandalism. It's open to all non-motorised traffic, just not motor vehicles. On one road we hit, there had been an enormous effort to keep ATVs out. There were FOUR twenty foot deep tank traps in a row, separated by less than fifty feet between them. As we kept going up the road, we discovered that there were NINE tank traps just like the first four, and then an additional nine smaller tank traps. Someone went to a lot of trouble to keep people out of there, but we were able to make it through on the bikes (not saying it was easy, mind you--it was a real slog). Had this been the aftereffects of an earthquake, SpecFan would never make it through.

Oh yeah, we had to wade through a river bottom, too.

East Hill

ralph12

Specialized fan

That what the Hummer is for, off roding, of coarse it could be some fun mountain biking too.

wahoonc

Hummer is going to be stopped cold at the road block...bicycle will probably be let through. I have been there and seen it happen after a hurricane when the roads were blocked by 100 year old oak trees. Bicycle and foot traffic could pass. I have yet to see a Hummer that could climb over a 6 foot+ diameter log across the road. Motor vehicles are a tool, nothing more, they have their uses, but are not the universal answer. You don't use a 20# sledge hammer to drive trim nails, but in a pinch you could use a trim hammer to break blocks...it would just take you longer

Aaron

Sianelle 

The history of the military bicycle is quite fascinating. My favourite story is how NZ bicycle troops captured a group of Boers on horseback during the Boer War after a cross country chase.