bicycle culture

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

If you're seriously biking around and not using your car, take it out and drive it (or just run it, but driving is better) for close to an hour once/month. This'll help heat the engine and exhaust pipes etc and 'burn' out the condensation, etc, that would otherwise rust and start breaking down seals, etc. Cars suffer more from non-use than over-use.

Public service announcement over.

Ok....Next month I think we'll have to drive about 8 hours round trip over to the Boston area to pick up DH's NEW BIKE!!

[Geonz]

I've gotten to that p;oint with my car. I used to be a sloth. It was a slow process. It's only gone 300 miles or so since July, since that was when I last filled it up.

One strategy is to find a map and draw a circle with a 1- or 2-mile radius, and find the trips in that circle and pick at least one to start turning over to the bicycle. Another is to have a "car free day" first Sunday of the month. http://www.car-lite.org/
http://www.friendsjournal.org/conten.../feature2.html

I stumbled onto this site about the time I got the Xtracycle and it quietly inspired me, though it's got a religion and politics in it:http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action..._enabled=false

We had a meeting last Thursday of some people who want to make things better for cycling, and we met with a lady who'd been part of a successful grass-roots movement to pass a smoke-free ordinance here. She talked about strategies and efforts to, essentially, change the culture by modifying people's defiition of "normal." Most people aren't going to *challenge* "normal" - but those people may just be susceptible to being convinced by what they see and heare that it's something different than they thought, and they won't challenge that either.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Sue,
I really liked that FriendsJournal biking/walking article! We have a large Quaker center near us here, where I used to go on occasion when I was a teen. They helped my family through a crisis way back then, even though they didn't even know us. Though I'm not a Quaker myself, I just finished voluntarily helping them design a billboard promoting peace. Good people, with good sense.

[Kitsune06]

Geonz,
I really liked that article, too. I tend to be leery of organized religion in general, but Quakers are among those I can sincerely respect (generally anyone who can count as a conscientious objectioner in terms of war) and that article was very thoughtful and made a lot of sense.

I only wish I lived closer to town. Everyone talks about 1-2 mile rides to get groceries etc... is that round trip? It's 3 miles to my nearest store (one way) so that makes it hard for me to really *want* to get up and go, but I do... (better than driving) maybe... someday... I'll find somewhere to live on a real road...

[KnottedYet]

Kit - add Unitarians to your list of non-leery organized religeons.

We're pretty cool. Check us out. www.uua.org

Our church has a women's triathlon team, and the team has been working on getting more awareness of the biking option for churchgoers.

Like pointing out that we DO have a bike rack next to the building. We have no dress code, so I could even wear my bike skort to service if I wanted.

One of our ministers posted info about the Cascade bike club's $10 helmets sale. Now I'm starting to think of other ways I could push the biking lifestyle next spring (good weather brings out the bikers).

[Kitsune06]

Knot- they were already on my list.
But I'm not going to go into the 'who's on my list and who isn't' because I'd start offending people, and really, there are a lot of people in faiths not on my list (or on that other list) who are really, really great people. *shrug*