Two variations of a theme.
Check out
this article, on the latest stats on the number of commuters who bike to work. Though it doesn’t count people in my situation, who do a bike-to-mass-transit combo, there shows an increase of cycling commuters.
There’s probably a million lists like these online that will try to guilt you into riding a bike, making it seem like your world will sprout into a fantasy land of happy fairy-turtles and streets made of edible rainbow chocolate if you would stop destroying everything with your car—but there’s probably not a lot that also offer reasons not to bike, like I do below.
Reasons to Bike to Work
1. You will save money. Probably lots of it.
The big “duh” reason. Cars are expensive to buy and finance, partially because of subsidized roads and easy credit (more on this down below), and have high maintenance costs. Not to mention the gas, depreciating value, and the opportunity costs when have to deal with all of it. Just, no.
If you have a car just for commuting, you’re paying the full gamut of all that stuff. Imagine the savings™!
2. You will get exercise.
Another obvious reason. You may have a sedentary job where you sit for hours on end, and if you’re not exercising at some point in the day your health is going to head into the toilet, fast-like. Biking is at least one way, if you do not exercise already, to get into the habit of getting your heart rate up. There will be less of your butt and thighs to thank you for it.
3. You might meet some interesting people.
I don’t mean while you bike, although that can definitely happen. Since there are so few cyclists you have an instant ice-breaker at the office if you spot, say, the new guy/gal with their helmet or
lobster gloves
sitting on their desk. You might even end up
marrying them.
4. You’ll appreciate being outside and being inside more.
It’s hard to get that “one with nature” sentiment when sliding atop manmade pavement, but you do learn to adapt to moving fast and enjoying the weather, even when it’s extreme weather.
When it’s hot outside you’ll appreciate that climate-controlled office more. When it’s freezing out you’ll appreciate that climate-controlled office more. When it’s windy out…
Reasons Not to Bike to Work
1. You think you are saving the earth.
I hate being Buzz Killington on this, but unless
everyone in organizations like the DoD rides a bike and stops
bombing brown people and their property, pollution as a whole isn’t really going to go away. Whether or not you think global warming/climate change is caused by fossil fuel consumption, cow farts, volcanic puking sessions, or the weather itself, the contribution from one person is just a drop in the ocean. It’s okay to feel good about not stinking up the air a little bit but let’s proportion our smugness to a few seconds of self-satisfaction, not years of lording it over people who drive.
Don’t forget that manufacturing and delivering the bike might not be too enviro-friendly in itself. You just can’t win. Just walk everywhere (not in shoes, those are probably harmful, too).
2. You have a medical condition.
You might be able to work around this, maybe not. If you have bad circulation you may not be able to ride during the winter. If you have bad asthma or a heart condition you might not be able to ride at all. There’s also a medical condition called “having no legs” which makes it hard to bike.
Although…
3. You live too far from where you work to make biking practical.
You can bike longer than you think, but too far is too far. Don’t let a pedal-jockey poopoo you on this. Not everyone can be
Fausto Coppi.
4. You don’t want to or know when to break the rules.
This sounds weird, but think about this a little bit: the American government loves cars.
Loves loves loves them. It
bails auto manufacturers out, has a near-monopoly on
road creation, says
who can and who can’t drive, and makes it easy to
get autos through easy credit and state-sponsored
incentive programs, and so on. The market is artificially geared (heehee) towards automobiles, so naturally road laws aren’t going to be in cyclists’ favor.
So what does this have to do with breaking rules? Well, sometimes you might need to bend those traffic laws to keep safe. If a real winner in an overblown pickup truck is tailgating you, do you think it’s okay to blow through that stop sign (assuming you’ve determined it’s safe to do so), or to risk getting wrecked by a fender in your back tire?
Here’s another situation: most bicycles aren’t massive enough to trigger traffic lights to turn green. Is it okay to cross on the red light if you bike, say, early in the morning when you might have to wait five minutes for a car to arrive to trigger the light change?
The point is, use your own sense of risk assessment and management to navigate questionable situations. You can’t rely completely on static signage to address every problem you might face on a bike.
Links for your consideration:
With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike
10 reasons Congress must save bike/ped funding – as a libertarian I don’t want Congress or any bureaucrat doing much of anything, but the post has some salient points.
Six Pittsburgh Businesses Earn National Bike Friendly Recognition – this is more my style: skip dealing with politicians and instead work with normal, productive people.
Photo by crankyuser.
