I'm going to post this in every venue I post in I think. Just to explain why I enjoy cycling over driving.
Let me preface this (if that's possible in the third sentence...) by saying that I'm American, no that's not true, I'm Texan. The states are seriously embedded in car culture, and Texas is one of the worst. We claim its the long distances between cities or the heat (I've biked in +120F before), valid excuses but still excuses. I get the weirdest looks when I'm biking home from work or the store. But I think my smile of joy confuses people the most. I often get, "how can you bike in this heat?" or "why don't you just buy a car?" or offers for rides. So I thought I'd try to put my reasoning on biking down if I can manage.
First it's cheap! Cheap, cheap. My e bike (electric assisted bicycle) cost me $450, once. I know loads of people who pay that much out monthly (which comes out to about $5000 a year) for driving a car after you take into account payments, insurance, and gas. Maintenance costs on automobiles are an added outragous expense. I've got a little over 500 miles on this bike and haven't even had so much as a flat but even if I completely change a wheel, tire and tube it still costs less than the average car tire. Times are tough right now, and the economy is never going to make a miraculous bounce back to where it was in the late 90s. So finding a way to save a considerable block of cash like this is handy.
Secondly, it's far more environmentally healthy than any automobile, obviously. I'm not going to harp on this because for some reason lots of people see green as the enemy. I'll just say that it makes me feel like I'm not causing as much damage as I could be. Every little bit helps.
It's also far healthier than driving. I do anywhere between 6-8 miles a day which isn't enough to count as a full on workout but it
s something. While some mornings it may be hard to get motivated to go to the gym or do your yoga, it's easy to get motivated to go to work. You may not want to but you want that paycheck damn it!
Bicycles are also faster in some cases for short trips than a car in town and we can certainly go places where a car can't. The joy and feeling of accomplishment at switching to a bike shouldn't be diminished either. I make a 6 mile round trip to the grocery store and instead of feeling like I finished a chore I feel like I finished a small adventure. I do wish Brownwood was bike friendly with a few paved trails and what not but I'll take what I can get.
Let me preface this (if that's possible in the third sentence...) by saying that I'm American, no that's not true, I'm Texan. The states are seriously embedded in car culture, and Texas is one of the worst. We claim its the long distances between cities or the heat (I've biked in +120F before), valid excuses but still excuses. I get the weirdest looks when I'm biking home from work or the store. But I think my smile of joy confuses people the most. I often get, "how can you bike in this heat?" or "why don't you just buy a car?" or offers for rides. So I thought I'd try to put my reasoning on biking down if I can manage.
First it's cheap! Cheap, cheap. My e bike (electric assisted bicycle) cost me $450, once. I know loads of people who pay that much out monthly (which comes out to about $5000 a year) for driving a car after you take into account payments, insurance, and gas. Maintenance costs on automobiles are an added outragous expense. I've got a little over 500 miles on this bike and haven't even had so much as a flat but even if I completely change a wheel, tire and tube it still costs less than the average car tire. Times are tough right now, and the economy is never going to make a miraculous bounce back to where it was in the late 90s. So finding a way to save a considerable block of cash like this is handy.
Secondly, it's far more environmentally healthy than any automobile, obviously. I'm not going to harp on this because for some reason lots of people see green as the enemy. I'll just say that it makes me feel like I'm not causing as much damage as I could be. Every little bit helps.
It's also far healthier than driving. I do anywhere between 6-8 miles a day which isn't enough to count as a full on workout but it
s something. While some mornings it may be hard to get motivated to go to the gym or do your yoga, it's easy to get motivated to go to work. You may not want to but you want that paycheck damn it!
Bicycles are also faster in some cases for short trips than a car in town and we can certainly go places where a car can't. The joy and feeling of accomplishment at switching to a bike shouldn't be diminished either. I make a 6 mile round trip to the grocery store and instead of feeling like I finished a chore I feel like I finished a small adventure. I do wish Brownwood was bike friendly with a few paved trails and what not but I'll take what I can get.
rogue:
Thank you so much. You are going to make me blush <3