So cycling is political act??

[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.

[tangentgirl]

Shootingstar, did you respond to the person on the other forum with what you said here? If so, what did they say?

I suspect the person calling you a commie is not someone who would listen to reason, as leaping to that conclusion from your blog post in the first place seems unreasonable. I'm curious though.

Of course, you could always accuse them of being an imperialist capitalist pig who is trying to limit your right to ride a bike and wants to force everyone to drive 1989 Chevy Suburbans at 8 mpg. How dare they step on your political rights?!?

[shootingstar]

Shootingstar, did you respond to the person on the other forum with what you said here? If so, what did they say?

I suspect the person calling you a commie is not someone who would listen to reason, as leaping to that conclusion from your blog post in the first place seems unreasonable. I'm curious though.

Of course, you could always accuse them of being an imperialist capitalist pig who is trying to limit your right to ride a bike and wants to force everyone to drive 1989 Chevy Suburbans at 8 mpg. How dare they step on your political rights?!?

I gave same reason that I gave here, to him yesterday: I was never comfortable driving, so gave up my license a long time ago.

He graciously said I had a good (true) story.


Really, my car-free lifestyle is a LOOOOOG history of living a life, ignorant of the full convenience of a car. So ignorance =lack of temptation???

I'm sure most TEwomen here since we cycle often, will bike 2-5 kms. to the grocery store if their neighbourhood streets allow safe cycling in snow-free seasons. Instead of jumping into the car.
A personal financial story on saving money...ironic. It is...quite capitalistic. Selfish.

As for being/perceived as environmentalist: Am I consciously green? I'm pretty lazy, honest. I don't use my sink garburator for veggie scraps.....I just know it's going to get clogged like the garburator in Vancouver. Which is going to cost money to bring someone in to fix it, replace blades.

And we don't have composter in our building. Will I be lobbying for one? I doubt it. I'm not going to even talk about our new condo board who have to deal with bigger issues related to reserve fund...

I do alot of personal stuff more for both saving money and personal convenience.
So biking actually provides me extra personal convenience 'cause before I only walked or took transit. Now I have a 3rd viable option.

[Owlie]

Commuting by bike is of course a good thing, but of course saying that everyone should do it and rearrange their lifestyle to do it is going to ruffle some feathers.

I don't particularly like driving, but I like riding in traffic even less. I'm a chicken. And while I liked being able to walk to places and not having to pay for parking, gas and insurance, it was pretty inconvenient not to have a car at times. We looked into the car-sharing program when we were living in Cleveland, and there were so many ridiculous fees and things that it wasn't worth it at all.