From Queen:
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like
Bicycles. One of the greatest inventions in history. A way to get from A to B using ZERO gas, ZERO coal, ZERO electricity, and remarkably little energy on the humans part. Bicycles are much better with paved roads. We've got the paved roads. Where are the bicycles?
a tip of the hat to BruceMcF who provided a whole bunch of links.
Where are the bicycles? They're sitting in garages and basements. We certainly are buying bicycles, in 2005, we bought nearly 20 million bicycles. That's one for every 15 people; and we know how to ride them: A little lower on the same page is the statistic that, in 2002, more than 40 million people over the age of 7 rode a bicycle at least 6 times. The problem is that we don't ride them in order to get somewhere: of those who ride bicycles, only 5% ride them for transportation.
Why not?
Lots of reasons. One good reason not to ride a bicycle is that it's hard to put a whole family on one, particularly if some of the members of the family are very old, very young, or disabled. But anyone who's spent anytime looking at cars in traffic jams knows that a huge proportion of cars have one person in them.
Another good reason not to ride is that it's hard to haul a big load on a bicycle. I've heard of some people who do this - I read about a guy who has a luggage cart on his bike, which he rides to the airport - but not a lot of people are going to do that, and I don't blame them
I don't think every trip should be by bicycle; I do think bicycles will play a key role in solving our transportation problem
So, why don't people ride bicycles?
- Weather.
- Distance.
- Fear.
Who wants to ride a bike when it's really hot or really cold, or really wet? Luckily, people have thought of this prior to now.
Google bicycle and rain and you get multiple hits. Here is one that looks really good.
Heat and cold are easier to deal with: Heat? Wear shorts and a tee shirt. Change when you get to the office. Cold? Well heck! People pay big bucks to go skiing in (you guessed it) COLD. We do know how to deal with these.
(read a bit more about accommodations below)
Distance. This is the hardest, IMHO. I see it as a gradual process. First, we can get people biking in the urban cores. This should be easy. The big steps will come when we start moving people from the suburbs to the city (that's a whole other diary - but there are ways, some of them are outlined here) and also moving some of the city to the suburbs. As software improves, more people will be able to telecommute. But before the big changes happen, how about bicycle storage facilities at all suburban bus and train stations? Bike to the train, train to the city, walk or mass transit to the office.
Fear. I'm terrified to ride my bike in NYC traffic. I am willing to sacrifice for the environment, I am not willing to die or be injured. Well, there are ideas about THAT too....BruceMcF has a whole bunch of links here. It's a complex topic. But one thing is clear: If there are more bikes on the road, and fewer cars, there will be more room for the bikes AND the cars. And more room means fewer accidents and less traffic.
In New York City, where I live, the streets are a complex of pedestrians, bicyclists, and cars. Recently, a fair number of pedicabs, or bicycle rickshaws, are showing up. I think we need more of these. A LOT more. For a lot of commuters, they offer the best of everything. While a ride from an office to a train station may be costly, it might be less than parking your car, paying tolls, and paying for gas. So, why not: Bike to the train station, train to the city, pedicab to your office? For most of this, the busy executive could be happily working on his or her laptop. Or sleeping. Or reading a novel. And no sweaty exercise to mess up the fancy clothes.
OK, so what can we do now?
- Lobby (either with politicians or locally) for bike racks at work, at the mall, and so on. Tell a store owner you'd buy more of his stuff if he had a bike rack outside. Tell local politicians you want an ordinance requiring bike racks
- Work for casual work environments. If you have to dress formally, getting sweaty is, well, icky; and wearing rain gear or cold weather gear may be impractical. Try to get your workplace to accept casual wear. Failing that, try to get changing rooms, with showers. If you're not too modest, and a little creative, you can change in a bathroom. I've also heard of people changing at a gym without even using the gym. Sounds weird, but if gym membership costs (say) $500 a year, that's about $2 per working day. You probably save 10 times that by biking instead of driving.....
- Investigate pedicabs. Do they exist in your city? Could they? If you have a business, why not advertise on pedicabs? That would add to their income and maybe lower prices.
I'm sure others will have more good ideas.
But, for now.....
Get on your bikes and ride!