So cycling is political act??

[shootingstar]

I'm really amazed how the rare folk view cycling and the advocacy of cycling as limiting their lifestyle options as a political act. As a socialist maneouvre, blah, blah.

I got the odd feedback on the blog post I wrote recently about saving money over the decades by not driving/owning a car. It was in another forum.

Indeed, the person felt cycling advocacy in general, was just one more intrusion into their freedom of rights, political rights. Then it becomes a socialist, communist morphing diatribe.

Amazing.

[PamNY]

Was this just one person?

[jessmarimba]

America is a very car-centric nation, so I wouldn't be surprised that some people were overly offended. But I also find it a little insulting when people assume things about my car ownership. Someone in the other thread wrote in a long example presuming a $20,000 vehicle with a loan - but I paid $5,000 cash 5 years ago, and could probably sell my car for about 3k today. Public transportation is also not even the slightest bit efficient here, so when I'm injured (like now) I would spend 4+ hours commuting round-trip if I went by bus. As someone who flies frequently for work, 35 miles to the airport from my office is either ridiculously expensive or 3 hours and 4 buses...one way.

Not everyone "saves" without a vehicle. Just something to be open to. I don't find you preachy but a lot of anti-vehicle people are, so the general public probably braces itself for that.

[marni]

I think the thing that irritates me most about the whole situation is the assumption that just because I commute by bike as often as I do by car, and that because I save all of my errands and running around (non commuting) driving and limit it to one or two trips, that I have no right to the road under any circumstance. That since I ride a bike, I don't pay local taxes, highway taxes and tolls, or support the roads or car driving in any way.

I pay my taxes and homeowners fees just like everybody else, and I fail to see how my choices limit someone elses life style.

marni

[shootingstar]

Was this just one person?

Sadly, a few others joined into his choir.

I should have explained that I don't drive because I don't like driving. I was never comfortable driving high speeds on the highway. So no point. I dropped my license. It was a personal safety issue for me. None of environmental/health fitness reasons or even saving money in the first place.

I know several people like me...but they're still driving. That's not safe for them.

[jessmarimba]

I hate driving in traffic. I'm safe enough at it, but it makes me grumpy. So I do what I can to avoid freeways and love to commute by bike when possible...but dear lord, do I hate when I get sent someplace like LA for work and have to drive around with 8-10 lanes of traffic that are all in a hurry (and then parallel park )

I'm trying to do car-free weekends but I'm addicted to old furniture and home-repair projects so it hasn't been easy. Can't move that awesome old chair that needs reupholstered or the pile of lumber and paint for the built-ins by bike or city bus.

(And I'm sorry that my last post sounds grumpy. I think we all just get bothered when people make assumptions, and the implication somewhere in the original thread that people with cars can't also be thrifty irked me a little...and I love my little civic! I get defensive about her!)

[zoom-zoom]

(And I'm sorry that my last post sounds grumpy. I think we all just get bothered when people make assumptions, and the implication somewhere in the original thread that people with cars can't also be thrifty irked me a little...and I love my little civic! I get defensive about her!)

I get this. Even some of our cyclist friends think we're nuts to not have a minivan or SUV for easy hauling of our bikes...but while our roof racks cut down on our small and midsized cars' fuel efficiency, it's only while the racks and bikes are on the cars (well, my car, specifically, since that's the one with the rack mounts). We like having fuel efficiency AND cars that are fun to drive, even if it means having to carefully pack when we go on trips. We're thrifty.

Heck, if we lived closer than 30 miles from my hubby's work we'd only have 1 small car for our family of 3, since he'd bike to work most of the time (and the awful thing is that we actually lived on the SAME street that he now works on...he was hired just months after we moved up here...horrid timing). It's not political for us, it's because the expense of 2 cars means that much less $$ to spend on fun stuff...like more bikes!

[shootingstar]

2 areas I know I'm not as thrifty (though probably still budget -oriented compared to some women who are annual ever-changing fashionista lovers.):

*I no longer sew my own wardrobe once I started cycling often.
*I don't grow any of my own food.

Beyond growing herbs (which I haven't done yet where I am), I don't see the natural thing in me for the gardening love.

Sewing....maybe if I am no longer able to cycle.

Can't you see....I love to create, craft with words, pictures, fabric, paints..

As for big city driving: Dearie was asked to drive his cousin and wifey from Germany from airport suburb of Vancouver (before the light rapid transit rail was extended to airport in 2009) into downtown. Guy is younger than dearie and he's used to driving the high speed auobahns in Germany! (He became a converted cyclist (and snowboarder!) after meeting dearie 15 years earlier.)

It was the lack of confidence, insufficient English fluency and high speed with interchanges that probably freaked them abit.

Same for another German guy I knew personally from another job who is fluently bilingual in English and German. He refused to drive himself from the Vancouver airport into downtown. A guy around my age and a frequent driver back Germany.

[lph]

I can get preachy about bike commuting, because I think it really really REALLY is a good thing, for so many people and for society as a whole. But I know it annoys people, especially the ones who already have a bad conscience about driving too much or exercising too little, so I make an effort and restrain myself. We bought a car 10 years ago ourselves, and didn't automatically morph into brainless pudgy idiots frittering away our income in gas money after all, but we did get the freedom to haul large objects and go skiing and hiking in different areas without having to borrow or rent a car.

It can be a fine line, sometimes, being enthusiastic about one's own choices without being too denigrating about others. I can usually get away with just saying how much I dislike driving, and getting stuck in traffic, without too much of the "how can you bear this everyday??"-tone

[owlice]

I think we all just get bothered when people make assumptions

I'm going to make an assumption that you are not originally from Colorado (or if you are, that your parents are not).

Is my assumption correct? (Not asking to be snarky! Something in what you wrote makes me assume what I assumed. And if my assumption is correct, I'll venture a guess as to where you/your parents are originally from.)

[Kiwi Stoker]

The oher way maybe- but I HATE when people assume that all cyclists are green orientated, don't have a car so don't pay road taxes and HATE cars.

Umm no sorry most cyclists are NOT in that category and these ones are probably quite rare.

[owlice]

But I know it annoys people, especially the ones who already have a bad conscience about driving too much or exercising too little

Or maybe they don't have a "bad conscience." Maybe they live too far from work to commute/have to ferry children and/or others hither and yon/are unable physically to cycle/don't have safe bike commuting roads between home and work/transport work equipment/etc.

The Washington Post has a "Dr. Gridlock" column, and some years ago, a letter appeared in it from a woman who walked to work and advocated (quite self-righteously) that everyone live near enough to one's employment so as to walk to work. I am rarely prompted to write to newspapers, but did in this case, asking what she suggested for my family, since my husband (at the time) worked in Suitland, our son was at that time in a (special ed) school in Rockville, and I worked downtown? (For those not in the DC area, imagine a clock with my work near the center, which is 22 miles from my house outside the Beltway at 1 o'clock, my husband's work at five o'clock and the kid's school at 11 o'clock and even further outside the Beltway. And this was better than the subsequent school, which was in Baltimore and gave me a 100-mile round trip commute on the days I dropped our son off at school and then drove to my job in DC!)

I'd love to commute to work by bike, but for what it would cost me in other things -- such as a much higher mortgage -- it's not going to happen now, and I don't feel bad about that. (I'll envy those who can, though!) Life is full of trade-offs. I'll read of everyone else's commuting exploits instead, thoroughly enjoy them, and holler "You go, girl!" in my head as I do!

[jessmarimba]

I'm going to make an assumption that you are not originally from Colorado (or if you are, that your parents are not).

Is my assumption correct? (Not asking to be snarky! Something in what you wrote makes me assume what I assumed. And if my assumption is correct, I'll venture a guess as to where you/your parents are originally from.)

Is anyone really from Colorado?

Would the fact that I don't drive an ancient subaru wagon as my "thrifty" car have given away that I'm not from here?

I'll go on and say yes, do guess, but since I've given it away several times on this forum I'm not sure I'll believe that you just figured it out on your own. Though I'll give you partial credit if you guess one of the cities I've lived in so far.

[goldfinch]

The oher way maybe- but I HATE when people assume that all cyclists are green orientated, don't have a car so don't pay road taxes and HATE cars.

Umm no sorry most cyclists are NOT in that category and these ones are probably quite rare.

I hope that it at least isn't rare for cyclists to be green oriented. I want everyone to be green oriented.

[pll]

I cannot stand preaching. One's life style choices, like religious ones, are personal. I have a friend who chides me for not buying a hybrid car -- for me, a conventional one is more economical. I drive it at most twice per week and so few miles I forget on what side the gas tank is. I walk to work not to save money or to be green, but because I like it and because I dislike a long commute. I am not wasteful, but do not consider myself green. My carbon foot print, conventional car an all, is small enough.