while sitting around wallowing in my guilt for pussying out Friday, i came across this interesting link, Gobybicycle.com. it's a list of 15 reasons to ride:
Why go by bicycle? 15 good reasons.....i could've just left the link, but i really like the list. i made some alterations, deleting explanations when the basic bullet works just fine. i also commented herenthere (in italics). not trying to be difficult per se, but critical in an analytical way. i'm highly cynical though. i cannot envision the great majority of Americans getting out of their cars and on the bike or even on the sidewalk. it would take economic calamity wherein they couldn't afford to drive, much like in so many other places. we'll see when the Chinese and the rest of Asia wants even more oil. we'll see.
1. Remember when you first learned to ride a bike?
2. the most efficient form of transportation ever invented.
3. Half of all transit in the United States is six miles or less round trip
4. If you see someone you know while riding, it's easy to stop and say hello- cant' do that in a car (i take some issue with this one in that so many lycracyclist act like assmonkeys).
5. The occasional bicycle bell is nothing compared to the constant cacophony of car traffic.
6. There are no parking problems for bicyclists.
7. A good new bicycle can cost as low as $250. No dmv, no insurance, no gas, very little maintenance. (This one is specious b/c the only folks i know who don't spend money on bikes are ones who don't have any money.)
8. In addition to weight loss, bicycling reduces the risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and high blood pressure.
9. If you stand in a closed garage with a running car, you will die in a matter of minutes.
10. Terrorist organizations use our gas money.
11. In 2001, more than 3,000 Americans died of terrorism on our own home soil. In 2001, more than 43,000 Americans died in car crashes on our own home soil, and about 2,200,000 suffered disabling injuries. The American death toll of the Vietnam War, which lasted several years, is about 50,000.
12. States, counties and cities spend billions of dollars fixing roads that cars damage. (what about the gas taxes we pay to do exactly this?)
13. Experts estimate that easily accessible oil (in other words, cheap oil) will run out around the year 2010.(Jim's Peak Oil)
14. The car and oil industries spend billions of dollars each year to promote a benign image of driving, but the function of all this is to assure profits and manipulate consumers, and nothing more.
15. Staying closer to home to shop and do errands builds communication among residents, which promotes autonomy.
So try it. Go by bicycle.
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