What Does “Going Green” Really Mean? (Part 6)

The bicycle. Do you feel motivated to “go green” (bless that little phrase — it has weathered so much trendiness already thus far)? Then consider the bicycle. If you already own one but don’t ride it on a regular basis, why not? If you don’t own one, why not? Surely, some of you will have seemingly reasonable answers to these initial questions, but still: challenge your own excuses so that you can see how far your boundaries will expand in relation to the comfort zone of the planet earth rather than that which is determined solely by your own concerns and fears.

If you think that the bicycle is a wonderful invention and a key to helping slow down and even halt the damage we’re doing to our collective home, you are by no means alone. Listeners to BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours program were invited in 2005 to vote in an online poll that would recognize the most significant inventions since 1800. Ahead of the transistor and the electro-magnetic induction ring, in first place, was the bicycle (which received more than half of the votes, at 59%).

On one hand, take the bicycle. On the other, the automobile. Do you favor the ability to cover long distances in a relatively short amount of time without breaking a sweat? Chances are you don’t own a bicycle, and if you do then chances are you don’t ride it much. If you own a car and a bicycle, what percentage of your travel time do you spend in/on each?

All of these questions are meant to engage you in the process of reconsidering your relationship to travel, to ask you to meditate on how you get from A to B and what your motivations are for the decisions you make regarding that travel.

Certainly, if you live in St. Paul or Montreal, the winter weather is going to offer some interesting challenges to your cycling to and from work, but that is only one season out of four. Three out of four seasons of cycling isn’t bad. Just use those handy tunnels and walk more in the winter. You could even give public transportation another try.

Public transportation. Yes. It is a better option than using your car as a single occupant, but there is a plethora of reasons for why I, and many others I’m sure, hesitate to use it. Ridiculous prices. Angry and condescending transit employees. Break downs, closures, and a lack of reliable communication. A lack of reliability in general, really. Granted, I am thinking of public transportation in New York City, where the price of a Metro Card keeps rising and the quality of service continues to plummet. Even more reason, perhaps, that a bicycle is a better option than public transportation, and certainly more ecologically friendly than the automobile.

When the automobile was introduced to the public, it was marketed as a pathway to freedom. Freedom from what? The small enclosure of one’s community, perhaps. Admittedly, I am just as culpable as anyone when it comes to desiring a long car ride with the windows down and the volume on the stereo up, the heater on in the winter, the moon roof open on a clear night. I’d much rather do it, however, in an electric car.

But the bicycle — unassuming, available, relatively shy over there in the corner. It requires more effort, more energy. Without a doubt. But return to that meditation of yours on your boundaries: When are you considering the needs of your home, and when are you considering your needs exclusive of anyone and everything else?

Cities have proclaimed themselves as bicycle-friendly. But that’s a vague and debatable term. There are many bicycles in New York City, but riding there can be a nightmare (as it can be in any urban area). Portland, Oregon, from my experience, is more embracing of cyclists than New York City, but it’s also a much smaller city; it has a different personality. It is a city not so much in a hurry. It knows more about slowing down.

Because isn’t that what this is all about? Slowing down? The crazy, speed-driven cyclists out there on their savvy road bikes don’t represent the bulk of commuters who know that when they put both feet on the pedals they are thinking of both their own health and the health of this planet we share.

What other items of evidence do you need? The costs of bicycle maintenance are dramatically lower than those for an automobile. It’s easier to be your own bike mechanic than your own car mechanic. The consistent exercise will do you some good — not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. Not to forget the sense of independence that can be gained, a sense of possibility that can easily filter into various other aspects of your life.

I invite everyone to submit links to their favorite sites for community-based bicycle resources, regardless of where you live, regardless of where the resources are. This planet really isn’t that big, in case you haven’t seen it lately.