bicycle culture

[mimitabby]

of course most of us were born and raised in automobile culture. Go to the store; get the car. Go to grandma's house, get in the car. Go to work, get in the car.

We have to try to convert these impulses to include bikes whenever possible.

During the summer, the days here are long enough that i can ride in the day light to and from my work. But now it is quite dark, and i really really don't feel safe IN THE DARK especially if it's raining. (it's not raining yet, but it will)
So now if i want to continue to amass miles on my bike, i have to find other things to do during the week.

So the other day, it rained but i needed to go to the library 4 miles each way to pick up a book. I took my bike. It took a lot longer than driving but it was less frustrating and more exciting.

Last night we wanted to buy tickets to a dinner theater downtown. If you buy them on line they cost $7.50 more per ticket, so I decided I'd drive down there and pick them up.
I told the DH this and he said, wait for me to get home, we'll go together.
You guessed it. We rode our bikes down there. The weather got more forbidding, so for most of the 8 mile ride home, we rode the bus, but this was a lot more fun than driving in and out of downtown during rush hour traffic.
all in all a fun date.
I tell you all this, because we're all on the same page, trying to live a healthier fuller life with our bikes.
Mimi

[Kalidurga]

I have to applaud you, Mimi. All summer, I kept thinking the same thing about trips to the post office, pharmacy/grocery, etc. Heck, one of the LBS's I use is only 2 miles from my home! I should be able to hop on the bike with a backpack and go, but instead I pick up the car keys.

Unfortunately, I am by nature a sloth For some reason, I can't get myself into the habit of using the bike for anything beyond "excursion" riding, when I load it up on the car and go somewhere to ride it.

This year's goal was to increase my riding distance. Next year's goal: Get off the trail and get comortable with road-riding, with the side-goal of using the bike for errands and such. Reading posts like yours, Mimi, should help quite a bit in achieving that.

[Bike Goddess]

Mimitabby- You all up there in the greater Northwest are seasoned cyclists! Rain...what the heck, ride anyway. Yes, it's wet, but as you say, an adventure awaits each ride!

Of course, most of the time rain in the NW means the "drip". Never terribly hard, just wet! I used to run the entire winter when I lived in Bellevue, and, Vancouver WA.

I wish it were easier for us down here in California(SF Bay Area) to also ride when it rains. However, because it is warmer in the winter, when it rains here it usually POURS!!!!!!! We get these storms called the Hawaiian Express. When these big storms come in, we get 30mph winds and lots of water! No fun being outside!

I live in a small town that is surrounded by hills. The only flat part is the main street (exactly one mile long). Although riding in the rain is doable and I certainly have been caught in many a storm, it's not much fun and can be quite dangerous. Our local bike club has a "rain cancels" note on winter rides because of this.

[Eden]

sigh - I just wish people wouldn't steal bikes. If I have a short trip to make I usually walk, just because by the time I get the bike out, go to the place I want to, lock it up, get what I need, unlock the bike, put the bike back in the basement I could have already walked there and been back. If I felt OK leaving even a beater bike out I might do more short bike trips. Even so I do usually walk. If it won't take me over 1/2 hour to get there generally I walk. If walking would take too long I bike, driving I usually reserve for very long trips or errands that I have a very limited time span for. (or for taking the cat to the vet - I'm not nearly so brave as UK Elephant to try to strap the cat to my back! )

[Python]

I'm not nearly so brave as UK Elephant to try to strap the cat to my back! )

I'm trying to persuade hubby that he really, really needs to get me a Siamese kitten. I thought I could train it to ride on the bike with me too...

He says we've got enough pets at the moment

[Triskeliongirl]

Its not too dark yet here to commute both ways, but when the clocks change and the days get shorter, either I'll bike in and then hitch a ride home with hubby, or if I need to take the car for some reason he'll ride in and hitch a ride home with me. If we both need to go by car we'll carpool. 1/2 a workout is better than none, and we have a gym at work so if we are commuting less by bike we'll spend more time in the gym. Our climate is mild, so club rides go throughout the year. Usually arm and leg warmers and a wind vest are the most we need, occasionally long fingered gloves, ear covers, and a windbreaker if its very cold or windy out.

[Cassandra_Cain]

Mimi - thanks for sharing your anecdote and well done. Especially for making the extra effort to ride your bike when you could have easily driven.

Ironically, I've seen both ends of it....car culture vs. a much stronger bike culture. Then I didn't come to the US till I was 11, so that's the reason behind it.

Talking about this makes me miss the "Rocket" and good restaurants in Toronto...

[BeeLady]

I'm doing more and more errands on my bike. The more fit I am becoming the easier it is to ride my bike even if I have to take a longer route to avoid the heaviest traffic.

A lot of little details had to come together to make the transition easier: riding skort/skirts and riding shoes with recessed cleats so I can wear comfortable for-cycling clothes to ride in and still feel comfortable in the store/bank/library; panniers so I can just have my groceries bagged straight into them; good lights for nite riding and a bracket to hold me cable lock so its not a hassle getting to it.

Recently added a VERY lightweight German-made mirror that really works well.

I want to help change the culture where I am -- thanks for the links and we can all do our bit. Part of it for me is also having biking appear "normal" and do-able -- I guess the word I'm searching for is actually "conservative" rather than bicyle culture appearing like some left-wing liberal Al Gore plot (I'm in a very blue state, folks!).

[Trek420]

BeeLady "I want to help change the culture where I am -- thanks for the links and we can all do our bit. Part of it for me is also having biking appear "normal" and do-able -- I guess the word I'm searching for is actually "conservative" rather than bicyle culture appearing like some left-wing liberal Al Gore plot (I'm in a very blue state, folks!)."

Disclosure: I'm unapologeticly progressive, radical to most, in a Blue State and a Dike on a Byke to boot but I know what you mean. Bike culture here must look different from most other countries and probably must look different to succeed.

I'm not a sociologist, maybe my sis who's on the board and is one will weigh in on this. I feel the predominant car culture seems tied up with not just 'the freedom of the open road" but also with how we feel about strength, atheticism, power and ultimately masculinity.

Isn't it silly when a truck pulls up along side you and revs it's engine?

But when they puposefully spew smoke, noise and buzz you as they pass?

Or yell at you and or throw things?

I've been called a "f*ggot" by drivers while riding more than any other situation place and time in my life. In case you're wondering I'm not obvious from any viewpoint still or moving much less from a bike. But in this Bluest Spot in the Bluest of Blue States (uh, moron drivers, get the gender right at least )

When I can discern what they yell....thats it!

Our TE guys endure this and more because a man is simply not a man in lycra, right?

We can't be athletes, athletes do one of 3 (and only three) sports which have balls in them. Athlete jerseys have numbers on them. We're not athletes.

It's not transportation, they see it as lack of transportaion. Not a positive thing being "car free" or strong and transporting ourselves by our own muscles, they see it as "we are car'less"

It's about power, who has it, who doesn't I think. Well.....off to watch football.

And as if to prove my point oh look, there's the Dodge Caliper advert. ;-)

[BeeLady]

Trek - I get it!

I think the REAL culture is big money behind the oil biz and the road contracts. Social changes seem like they're easier when a lot of rich folks don't have their billions on the line.

I'm a sweet lil ol' housewife, on the boards for charities (or was til I saw how meaningless much of that was) and generally a reformed hippie who married well and was propelled into the conservative thing.

My liberal/radical side is again showing itself now that my son is away at school and I no longer have to role model "fitting in."

Having been on both sides (so I like to think), making cycling a smoother fit with the Blue State way of thinking will help gain cycling more acceptance more quickly. Cycling is morally superior to air pollution, green house gases, depence on foreign oil, etc. and any thinking person has to see that. The easier we make it for people to change, the better.

[Trek420]

Many don't give a hoot about global warming, could care less about energy independence or *any* issue but they ask me "you're 50!! I don't believe it "

"It's the bike (that and I chose good parents, genetics)" I say.

People will do stuff that makes them look/feel better.

Heh, whatever works.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

There are some good chapters in the book The Art of Urban Cycling which discuss how America came to be a nation of automobile worshippers, and how the cities, housing developments, and roads evolved over the decades to be purposely designed in such a way as to actively discourage any transportaion method other than cars and trucks. It was no accident. There was Big Corporate Money involved in making this design plan become a reality. It also discusses why people in cars feel more "anonymous" and feel they can be way more aggressive than people face to face. They are almost completely insulated and feel devoid of accountability for their actions.

There are bigots, racists, chauvenists, aggressive motorists, and just plain stupid people everywhere. Nothing will ever completely change that fact. The more bikers of all kinds speak out, stand up for themselves and each other, organize, and demand their rights as citizens, the more Stupid People will realize that bullying will not make the people they dislike "go away" and in fact may get them into serious trouble.

[mimitabby]

All i know is that in most cities, they can only widen the roads so much and the number (and size of) cars keeps growing. this means worse traffic, and THAT means, more of us are going to just realize that it's actually easier to get from point A to point B on a bicycle.

Since the pResident of the USA is a bicyclist, you'd THINK that would help our cause, he even rode with Lance!! but unfortunately, that does not translate down to us on the streets competing with more and more cars, bigger and bigger cars, and worse and worse streets.

[KnottedYet]

I just want to ride my bike whenever and however I want, eat nice food, breathe clean air, say "hi" to people I encounter, and get happily l@id on a regular basis.

My bike can get me most of that, but for all of that I need other folks to participate.

Bike culture has a place with car culture, and it all comes under the Golden Rule. Unfortunately, we live in a culture of empire (with all that entails) not a culture of Golden Rule.

I've come to the somewhat disheartening conclusion that the best i can do is follow the old cliche and "be the change you want to see in the world."

I get an inordinate amount of pleasure from having some pedestrian smile and wave when I holler out "Good morning!" on my commute to work. Or having a driver do the same thing when I wave and shout "Thank you" to the car who gave me the right-of-way (even though I legally had it anyway). Just change-mongering my way through my day.

[pooks]

Recently added a VERY lightweight German-made mirror that really works well.
.

Tell me more? We bought mirrors that we thought would work but they were awful.

As for choices -- yes, we've been told we're "lucky" but we also have made financial sacrifices to be so lucky, and stayed in our house long after most of our friends upgraded, etc., etc., etc. It definitely is about choices, and hopefully we're all making the right ones. Probably the people who think I'm "lucky" wouldn't give up any of their lifestyle to share in my "luck," and I wouldn't take on their bills to have their lifestyle, so there ya are.

I did the post office ride today, went to Starbux, and suddenly decided to do the long, new ride I mentioned upthread. It was great. This is my favorite time of year, and it will only get better!