Rambling

I’m one of the few folks living outside of a big city that is carless. I’m lucky enough that not having one doesn’t really hamper what I want and need to do each day. I spend a good deal of time getting around on my bike. Once you start cycling you learn rather quickly that most places just aren’t bike friendly. The city where I live recently upgraded one of the main roads that leads to a good deal of the local businesses. No bike lane was added. I’m not going to kid myself and imagine an army of cyclists that are being held back due to the lack of bike lanes. I could very well be the only one with such a gripe in the entire town. There is a local bike trail that seems to get a good deal of traffic so there are other cyclists out there. The problem is that the local trail is nearly 100 percent recreational use only. Perhaps, it is a Chicken Vs. Egg problem. Are there no bike lanes on the main roads because there are no cyclists, or are there no cyclists because there are no bike lanes?

Each election cycle we hear a lot about weaning our country off foreign oil. A big road block that is going to face us in the process of doing that is that most of our city’s simply aren’t set up to handle any sort of transportation other than motorized. If we can’t do something as simple as bike lanes, than how are we going to manage putting together mass transit options. Bike lanes aren’t going to be the silver bullet to oil independence. There is no silver bullet. However, it is a simple and practical step that local and federal governments can take. If only simple and practical solutions could win elections. As a bit of a side note, I’m pretty excited to have our first Amtrak Vice-President. Here is hoping this means we start paying attention to our underfunded and underutilized mass transit.

Going a bit further, shouldn’t be encouraging things like cycling? We spend a good deal of money on healthcare because we are a nation of fat arses. How many fat arses do you know that cycle regularly. I know of several workplaces that offer to reimburse their employees who get health club memberships. Employees that get regular exercise call in sick less, which means less work hours lost. Why not do something similar for us cyclists.