The Myth of the Open Road
I bike pretty much everywhere in the city these days. But I also have a driver’s license and 16 years of driving experience. And occasionally I still drive. Like the other day I ended up driving across town to run an errand. Now, if you live anywhere near a city, you know that the driving experience is not exactly as advertised:
It’s a little bit more like this:
Which is not a good advertisement for cars. But this is exactly what I found myself driving in.
After my errand, I decided I wanted to stay out. I was hungry and there are great restaurants downtown. And some shops too. (I know, because I discovered them all by bike.) But in a car, I realized that I couldn’t casually go to any of them. I was trapped…
…and had to pass them by. It was like I was carrying the weight of the car rather than it carrying me. And I was tired. So I went straight home instead. Cars are useful, but driving in a city is kind of like trying to thread a needle while wearing a boxing glove.
I also like that my ” fuel” for my bike is my breakfast. So coffee and cupcake, 2 mph faster commute. I live in the suburbs north of Boston, 17 miles for a one way commute, It takes me 20 minutes longer to get to work by bike than by car. I talk to my neighbors about biking and they look at me like I’ve done and impossible task. I go to the store to pick up bread and milk and my bike is the only one there. Lots of people have a stuck mind set, with an uphill battle about changing attitudes about transportation. Can we see $ 6.00 to $8.00 a gallon soon for gas ?
I’ve been car-free for last 30 yrs. I also gave up my license in early 20’s. I just wasn’t comfortable driving. Especially on the highway.
I get into a car about 3-4 times annually for short trips. 1-2 days only. I was reminded just a pain in the butt it was to find parking for a car, just to have a restaurant meal.
Look. I love bikes. I ride one every day to public transport. They are great: I stay in shape, spend less on gasoline, and emit a little less smoke into the world. But, to put it bluntly, everyone who decries automobiles is a hypocrite. Nearly everything we use and depend on is delivered by a fossil-burning vehicle. Even our precious bikes. They didn’t come here on a bike filled with bikes, people. Cars and trucks are frustrating, but those of us who can afford to do without them are privileged, pure and simple. We live in centralized urban areas (for which we pay a premium others can’t afford), we are healthy or have access to altered cycles that allow us to overcome our physical disabilities, and we have jobs that don’t mind us showing up in crotch-hugging spandex. We can get all our groceries and luxury items because someone else drives them in for us—so we ourselves don’t have to drive.
There’s a lot I dislike about this comic and these subsequent comments, but the worst is this smug, self-righteous feeling of superiority—especially from a bunch of people who routinely and blatantly flaunt basic traffic laws.
So you think I should be thankful that motor vehicles deliver our goods? Rubbish! I resent the fact. Sadly, in the first half of the 20th Century, the auto industry lobbied to destroy the rail networks that used to deliver goods. That’s hardly my fault.
And I’ve never worn spandex in my life. Nor do I flaunt traffic laws. I do see them flaunted every day by motorists who speed, drive while using a cell phone, run stop signs, drive drunk, etc.
I think what’s comical is that you’re claiming that cyclists are a privileged set of lawbreaking yuppies when the average car costs 100 times more than the average bicycle and scofflaw motorists kill over a million people per year.
And the idea that we’re “a bunch of people who routinely and blatantly flaunt basic traffic laws” is evidence that you don’t ride a bike anywhere. If you did, you would know that motorists are much worse than cyclists when it comes to casual lawbreaking.
You make that comment about goods delivered by fossil-fueled vehicles like it was unchangeable instead of an aberration of the latter half of the 20th Century. Goods are delivered by fossil-fueled vehicles because the infrastructure was re-built for them. The infrastructure can be rebuilt again for other delivery vehicles using other methods of propulsion. We can go completely fossil-fuel free for rail by simply putting a collector over the tracks and out to the side and hiring people to keep those collectors clean and clear of debris. I wrote a science-fiction story about one of the cleaners a few years back, I should probably submit it to someone to make a few bucks off it. But even at the current state of the art for solar cells and diverting 55% of the power generated to storage for nighttime use placing a contiguous solar cell cover over a track would supply enough power to get a train moving and keep it moving at about the same average speed and loading as trains do today only without having to stop to refuel. There would be a secondary advantage of having a roof over the tracks to prevent weather related delays.
Then when the goods arrive in town they can be transferred to electric vans and cargo bikes for the “last mile” delivery, still without using fossil fuels. Not as cheap as today’s system of over the road semis and fossil fuels, but sustainable as long as they figure out how to recycle the tires, and make polymers from vegetable oils after they get used in the deep fryer. Similar to making bio-diesel except making synthetic rubber and plastics instead of replacing a fossil fuel. In theory any hydrocarbon (aka Fat) can be used as a feedstock for making polymers, it’s just that it’s easier when you have a bunch of different hydrocarbons to start with like in Crude Oil.
So, if we get off our backsides now and start learning how to work without oils while we still have some to work with in the transition, things will be all right. Well maybe not All Right, but Not Too Bad.
When asked why I don’t drive the car, even though I have one, I have never been able to articulate an answer as well as Bikeyface did here! Thanks, Bikeyface! I will remember that one: “When I’m driving, I am limited. I feel as if I am carrying the weight of the car rather than it carrying me.”
The only way I can even justify having the car is to share it. Not very altruistic – I’m condemning others to the very driving task that I so dislike. But otherwise, it’s just a big ugly curb ornament. Sigh.
AWEsome.
love your drawings and stories. I just got a puppy and drive more often : ( soon I will have a big bike to take us all.
tenspeedCowboy