Why Don’t You Bike?
October 24th, 2008 by AndrewBefore the beginning of this summer, I must confess that I rather disliked bicycling. My only real experience with bikes, except as a small child, was on an old mountain bike that was ill-suited to the trail riding and jumping my friends did, and hardly up to the task of a 35 minute commute to high school, either. As a wackjob hippie, I’ve long appreciated the idea of biking, but actually commuting by bike every day always seemed a little bit too hardcore (think Calvin’s dad) for me.
Upon moving downtown, however, I found myself in a situation where biking to get around was not only cheaper, but also more convenient, faster, and infinitely more fun than taking transit. As luck would have it, Toronto’s sparse bike lanes led straight to my office, allaying any initial trepidation. Despite being far too small for me, I grew to really appreciate my old, neglected bike, and it served me well until I finally invested in my current ride, a Jamis flat-bar road bike that I’ve transformed into a lean, mean commuting machine. I’ve since moved farther away, and despite the plunging temperatures and the daily risk of having a door opened into my face at 25 kph, I take a perverse glee in my daily rides. On Monday, after patching a flat tire, I decided to take my bike out for a spin. At night. In the pouring rain. I decided it would be a good time to practice riding with no hands. I have unabashedly fallen back in love with bicycling after a 15 year hiatus.
My attitudes about biking changed abruptly over the course of only a few weeks, and all it took was the taste of freedom (i.e. the ability to sleep for 15 more minutes) and the comfort factor of having bike lanes to ease the transition. Am I atypical, or is that all it takes? How many of you bike to work? How many of you don’t? Why? And more importantly, what would it take to get you on a bike? Is it an issue with the comfort, image, or convenience associated with bikes themselves, or is it the policy and infrastructure that surrounds it?
(My general curiosity aside, I should give full disclosure and say that this line of questioning was spurred by a post at the excellent Bicycle Design blog, which recently posted a design competition to design a commuter bike for the masses. The prize is an incredibly sweet bike. Your feedback will be going towards a good cause - that is, helping me win it.)
October 26th, 2008 at 5:08 am
I ride to work, but I live in Vancouver, where cycling is the dominant religion. Having said that, there’s a lot of people who don’t ride, and the rain is a big part of that. (How are you going to deal with the roads when they start getting icy? That’s gets me off my bike - especially given that there’s a lot of hills around here.)
Of his bicycle, one of my friends described it as his “laziest mode of transportation.” You don’t have to wait for anything, it’s probably twice as fast as a bus (unless you make all the connections and there’s no traffic), and almost as fast as a car — faster, if traffic is bad. Not to mention dirt cheap.
I ride a junky old bike (Marin Sausalito from who-knows-when… probably the 90s) that I have been neglecting to maintain (though I’m going to take it into the local bike co-op sometime over the next month and get them to help me find everything that needs fixing), but it gets the job done quite nicely. I don’t need no fancy performance machine. Though it would probably be nice.
I can say that a lot of people don’t like wearing helmets, because they look goofy and spoil their hair. Given my anti-style stance, I call massive bullshit, but shallowness seems to be a chronic problem with humanity. I saw a post recently about some “fashionable helmets” that are becoming available in Europe. One of the commenters mentioned that the reason helmets these days don’t have fabric on the outside (like these “stylish” ones did) is because it grips surfaces (like the road) and drastically increases the risk of whiplash or neck-breaking.
Anyway… a major reason why I bike so much here is the infrastructure. I’ve gotten so used to bike lanes / bike streets that I tend to spend as little time as possible on roads that don’t have them, and there are a few streets in downtown that I absolutely avoid (especially in rush hour) for fear of getting pasted. It also helps that everything in Vancouver is really dense. I live a considerable distance out of downtown (by Vancouver standards), but it still only takes me 20-25 minutes to get there on my bike.
I’ve asked similar questions of co-workers, and a lot of it involves getting to work sweaty, or drenched in rain. Or the fact that it actually takes a bit of effort to propel yourself somewhere. Or fear of traffic (sometimes despite bike lanes). Or just a general dislike of cycling. I dunno. Some people just don’t like riding.