Bleak.
11 degrees.
And the north wind makes it feel like -3.
Since my wife had to drive for errands this morning, my daughter and I accepted a ride to campus. I continued on to my office downtown on the campus shuttle bus. I’ll shuttle back to campus and then walk home at the end of the day.
I’ve been using a bicycle as basic transportation for almost five years now. Do I get a little slack on a day like this?
I’m not cutting myself any slack. A part of me is thinking: What a wimp!!!
But I also see that as a good thing: I’m aware of my choices, how and why I’m making them, and what those choices mean to me and to the community.
I’m also thinking more about car culture today (more books on that topic on order — stay tuned). I’m sure many of you have already read the profile of Oregon congressman Earl Blumenauer in The New York Times. Let’s take a quick look at two reactions:
1. Jonathan Maus, of BikePortland, was happy to see the positive profile, but:
…I cringe whenever people that work on bike issues are portrayed as being “evangelists” or activists (many people assume because I cover biking that I must be an advocate, but I consider myself a journalist first and only an accidental advocate). Biking is simply a transportation issue, but to many people in the media (and in the general public), it’s some type of fringe thing that comes with a group of believers who — like missionaries of a new religion — are trying to convince the rest of America to see the light.
I feel ya.
2. But I’m also feelin’ Joseph Rose, of the Oregonian, who replied:
Now, I’m not trying to dismiss Maus’ opinion (he’s a good guy and certainly knows his stuff when it comes to bike issues), but we still live in an auto-centric society. Car ownership is part of America’s DNA. In most places across the country, bicycling as a primary mode of transportation is indeed, I hate to say it, considered a fringe movement.
It’s possible to break the car habit (and, thus, the car culture). I did. When you can feel guilty about accepting a ride from a person who is going to drive anyway on an 11-degree day, well, that’s a habit broken. That happened over a relatively short period of time — the 4+ years since I decided to walk and cycle close to home.
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It was -3.3 degrees at rush hour this morning in Columbia. I’m constantly amazed at the weather difference between the two cities. While in college in Springfield I used to call my girlfriend and was shocked at how much colder it would be in Columbia than in the ozarks.
http://agebb.missouri.edu/weather/realtime/mizzou2.asp
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 2:57 pm ¶Robert… It’s practically a heatwave
But, yes, this area does seem to belong to an entirely different weather zone. Thunderstorms here seem to be more fierce than in KC, where I spent 20 years. And it seems we have more tornado warnings.
Posted 15 Jan 2009 at 5:32 pm ¶Cycling isn’t a religion. It really isn’t that important if you make some journeys other than on a bicycle.
No Dutch car-owning family would think twice about using their car if the circumstances made it the most reasonable way of making their journey.
However, the most reasonable way, with the most direct route, which will take least time, get closest to the destination and result in fewest parking problems is generally to hop on the bike, which therefore becomes a daily habit and the default means of getting about.
The problem then becomes having to work out what the route is should you have to drive for some reason. It means having to work out what the indirect route is, putting up with all those traffic lights that you usually skip past, having to find parking etc.
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 3:25 am ¶I think you’ve got to cut yourself some slack.
You know I’ve been following your blog with interest for some time. I agree with you most of the time in principle.
I guess as we know people’s policy points of view can often be shaped by their geographic location and the conditions in which they find themselves. For example when I lived in Rhode Island very few people supported gun rights openly… and for good reason dense population distributions made hunting impossible… of course in rural communities where hunting is common or even necessary the view is different… okay so I’m veering off topic…
The issue with bicycles is climate. Some climates are down right dangerous. For example Houston, which is very hot and humid and has blistering sun, I have become disoriented walking into the parking lot. Cold temperatures can also be lethal, though to me personally the cold is no where near as bad as the heat (note: I collapsed from heat exhaustion twice this last Houston summer/fall).
But is it practical to expect biking to continue in these temps? What about children? elderly? is biking only for viral men? ;-P I just keep coming back to this being an issue of housing and city planning… long distances combined with hostile climate makes this impossible to me…
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 11:29 am ¶David and Alex… Yes. It is important not to allow cycling to become a religion. In the U.S., driving is the easy choice much of the time. I feel like I have to be on guard about taking the easy way out. Now I’ve put myself into a position in which cycling is the easy choice most of the time (e.g. where I live). I like that. So I guess I resent intrusions that force me to choose a car.
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 12:36 pm ¶I see your point.
I personally hate the car. For years I tried to structure where I lived so that I could have the option to walk or ride transit even.
But it’s not even possible. I literally live across the street from the grocery store, but there are no sidewalks and the traffic is very much not into the mind of respecting bicyclists or walkers.
That doesn’t even get into the issue of the heat, I mentioned above.
I guess I wonder and maybe this didn’t come across in the post, if the issue of the cold is compounded by sprawl and distance. Could you have made it even in such whether had it been a shorter distance?
We just have to take on these distances.
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 2:37 pm ¶Alex… I’m good to go in any weather by myself. The issue isn’t me. It’s Emily. I think I risk her desire to cycle long-term if I force the issue when the weather is in the teens or below.
Posted 18 Jan 2009 at 5:20 pm ¶I understand that 40% of all journeys in the US are under 2 miles. That’s an easy distance to cycle in almost any weather.
Given the stats I’ve seen which suggest that average journey lengths are barely any different in the US, the UK and the Netherlands, I’m not sure the sprawl is really the issue that it is made out to be. Clearly it prevents some people from cycling at all, ever, but it isn’t what makes just 1% of journeys take place on a bicycle in the US.
Rather, the design of the roads and the residential and shopping areas in the US (and UK) makes people drive. If design is hostile to cycling then people take the very obvious hint that they would be better off in a car.
The much higher crime rate in the UK and USA compared with the Netherlands is also important. The Netherlands has much lower rates of murder, mugging, public drunkenness, drug abuse – the last one may surprise you given the lack of understanding of how the drugs policy works here.
It makes for public spaces which don’t feel threatening and where you do not need a metal box around you to protect yourself, or a gun, for that matter.
Posted 19 Jan 2009 at 1:47 am ¶David… I think you’re right about all of that. I would add one thing: The pervasive car culture in the U.S. also prevents people from “seeing” other transportation options as workable.
Posted 19 Jan 2009 at 8:31 am ¶I’m glad you brought up the point about some people seeing bikers as a “fringe” movement of sorts. I think that’s frankly silly. I don’t bike to work myself because of traffic concerns but I consider myself an advocate of better transportation options, including bike paths.
Posted 30 Jan 2009 at 8:38 am ¶