A primary misconception that folks have about bicycling is that it's too dangerous. So they prefer to continue killing each other (and the planet) with tailpipes and wars for oil. Basic laws of physics apply Accidents occurring at the 25mph or less speed bikes usually travel are unlikely to be seriously injurious; Accidents at the 40mph or more speeds cars travel at, are likely fatal or devastating, this is proved on US streets thousands of times every day. I have been seriously injured, but only from having a set of car keys, instead of a bike. My inoperable spinal injury was a direct result of my first car-jacking incident, where I was run over by my own car. And I was car-jacked a second time in the summer of 2002, by some kids who knocked me unconscious in my home office for the primary purpose of getting my car keys from me. I have had certainly dozens of mishaps in my 50 years of bicycling, but not one of them came even close to causing the life-threatening injuries my possession of a set of car keys produced on those fateful evenings. It's important to recognize that bike accidents are usually trivial. I often regard such mishaps as a free chiropractic or Rolfing session. But when parking, for the sake of smarts, convenience, and luck, I always hang my bike helmet on the handlebar. Then it HAS to be put somewhere to get rolling.
My decision to leave my car in the garage and start bicycling everywhere has made impulse buying and conspicuous consumption unnecessary -- or at least unlikely -- as there is a happy limit to how much cargo a bike can carry. (Never mind that I bought a bike trailer last year. Even without it, I often load up my bike with four full sacks of groceries in about the same time it takes to load a car or SUV with the same.) The bottom line is, even the fanciest bike will quickly pay for itself in saved healthcare costs and saved impulse-buying expenses. True, I sometimes have to ask the guy or gal at the grocery store to help hold open each of the oversize waterproof saddlebags, as it's tricky to drop something as large as two grocery sacks in. This means that I occasionally have to talk to strangers -- something that fewer and fewer people do. If you are strapped into a gas-burning auto, it is rather difficult to carry on a conversation (other than by symbolic gestures) when the stereo in the car next to you is designed to rattle windows for a 3-block radius. Have you ever noticed that people enclosed in cars are told never to trust those also in cars around them -- to "drive defensively" and expect the worst from every other driver? Whereas the opposite occurs in public transit or on a bike, one HAS to trust those around one. Smiles and conversation with strangers is what it's all about, and this is a reassuring fact, an opening and educating experience of sharing. Being enclosed in a car is a closing, competing, and fearing experience as sickening as the fumes from the tailpipe - and remember even the fanciest new car has an air intake near the tailpipe of the car in front of yours. Studies have shown SUV buyers are among the most fearful as well as selfish of drivers. Detroit's marketing psychology caters to the "at war with the world" mentality, just look at the HUMMER options. (Also look at the HUMMER's repair history. It has one of the highest warranty repair/recall records ever in the history of four wheeled vehicles, according to the Wall Street Journal.) The very concept of the private automobile has eroded trust and civility -- just one of the myriad hidden costs of cars. And sociologists have reported that cities that have maintained their streetcar systems have sharply lower rates of road rage. A famous car free city in Morocco boasts Arab and Jews living happily as neighbors together. Cars have never penetrated its streets, too narrow since medieval times to "welcome" the private gas powered vehicle.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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