It's Working - Part 2
Crowding at the Bike Rack. Just this past February, I celebrated seeing my first rack mate in a while, then in April, I would write about setting records for the number of bikes on the rack, and now, it's getting tough to find a spot for my bike if I get there a little late. Today was a multi-modal crowd with a scooter and motorbike to join the three pedalers.
If I turned the camera around the other direction, you'd see hundreds of cars of course, so showing a few bikes doesn't suggest that cycling is mainstream, but this gathering of bikes does show that we're pointed in the right direction.
The price of gas still holds the power to change our behavior. It's still working.
Commute Summary
Round Trip Distance: 18.2
Number of Cyclists seen: 29 (9 inbound with 920AM departure, 20 outbound with 510PM departure)
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton with a detour to run an errand
Labels: bike-parking
posted by Jett @ 9:47 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
You're right on, Jett, about the "working" business. I just wish it wasn't so simple and ugly a catalyst as monetary expense that makes folks think beyond their present sphere. Makes me a bit cynical, I'm afraid. When folks get used to this money outlay and integrate it into their lives, they might just revert to old behaviors...
Chatting to students before one of my classes about three years ago I said something like, "I'd be happy if gas was five dollars a gallon."
This was a college where more than 60 percent of students drove to campus, and I'm sure something on the order of 80 percent of faculty and staff drove in.
What my students found puzzling was the idea that how one travels from place to place *determines* the sort of place it is. They just didn't understand how that 3,000 pound metal compartment creates not only the geographies we see (the kinds of houses, the stores, the lanes and passages, the food) but also, and more depressing, that weird container becomes who we are.
The actual buffer of steel and plastic becomes an internalized, psychic distancing. We drive encased in the comforts and quiet, barely acknowledging others engaged in identical comfort and distance. In the same way that, say, ancient North Africans and Asians could not imagine themselves or the world outside the sphere of “horse,” these mighty, and mighty big, transit machines create us. And we become them, societally, organizationally, and to ourselves.
I think this is what makes many nervous about all this recent talk of “alternatives.” We’re asking folks to be someone else, someone who is not in their car.
Oddly, this ties in to your idea of feeling strange not being on your bike one day, even though it might be the first time in more than a week you didn’t ride. That two-wheeled, outdoor, windy, lightweight, self-motoring contrivance disallows distance and somehow *connects* us to things in the world. And when we don’t ride, something feels all off. We *are* our bikes and vice versa.
When I drive anywhere lately, it feels like cheating.
Ride safe,
Barry
Yes, the car commercials keep coming because they have achieved some measure of success in shaping our car-dependent self-perception. The saying used to be "You are what you wear", but today it is "You are what you drive".
For me riding my bike, that remains true. I like being fit and working honestly to achieve that fitness. I like being outdoors getting hot in the sun, cool in the breeze and wet in the rain. I like exchanging greetings face-to-face with friends, neighbors, and even strangers.
Sure, I've enjoyed what the car offers, but my experiences on a bike are far richer, less costly, and more sustainable. I'm sure *some* percentage of folks who are newly trying cycling will find the same and will stick with cycling. I just hope it will be a large percentage.
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