Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The return of the bike?
I will research why people are using bikes more often to get from point a to point b. I believe that there are several social factors that are pushing people towards bikes, and away from cars as a means of transport. The first question I need to pose for this topic is, are people riding their bikes more now then they were in the recent past? And to narrow the subject down a little, is the riding of bikes for practical purposes. If people are riding their bikes more now just because they find it to be a fun activity it won't really work for my topic. I intend to investigate the replacement of cars with bikes, not just the increase in bike riding. There are several factors which I believe might be influencing the increase in bike riding. Environment factors are the first the come to mind. Burning less gas is good for the environment, and everyone loves the environment right? Additionally, with burning less gas by driving less there is an economic incentive. Less gas equals less money, and we all know people love to save money, there isn't even a question there. There are also social factors. One of these is the New Belgium Brewing Companies 'Tour de Fat' in which they advocate biker awareness and give away a new bike, in exchange for that persons car. I wonder if there are any other events like this. Have you heard of any? The final incentive that I considered is time. Maybe it is faster to avoid traffic on a bike than it is in a car. But for this to be true, there would have to be some special circumstances. I believe that by giving bikers certain rights, local governments are able to encourage biking over car driving.
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I thought that I would lend a perspective in this for you :) I bought a bike this may with my birthday money and soon after my husband bought one too. We used it a lot in the first few months; riding them downtown, going up and down the greenbelt, exploring the smaller areas of the city. It was fun. Except for not having bike lanes in the busy areas, like downtown, we never felt like we were trouble. I mean, we are in a college town, so there are going to be a lot of bicyclists.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we chose to get bikes was twofold. One- we were both going back to school in the fall and would have different schedules, not to mention we now live closer to campus than before, so we decided it might be faster to get bikes. Plus, we wouldn't have to pay to park. Two, we are down to one car (the other two broke) and we needed options if one of us was at work. Frankly, the environment was not somehting we even thought about when getting them. I could be all "environmentally conscious" and say that we just wanted to provide cleaner air for future generations, but that would just be a lie. :P
I think, for us, a lot of why we bike is the convenience. Plus it turned out to be fun.
However, there are waaaaay too many goathead plants that pop our tires. I have seriously bought probably near twenty replacement tires for the two bikes since late may. We tried those "no pop" solid tubes, but they were very heavy.
Now I am rambling, and I am done.
Well I personally like to bike to class and around town because it is a workout and good exercise for me since I lived 5 miles away from campus. I also started using a bike when parking was becoming a problem and i kept getting tickets...but now its cold and I have to drive again. I didn't really think about the environmental perspective either when i decided to ride my bike places. I hear people talk about it all the time...but those people also jump in a car just as fast as I do when it gets cold, so it coesn't sound like much commitment to me?I think people have good intentions, but some people just simply enjoy it as well. And there is nothing wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteI think the whole trade your car for a bike thing is a neat concept. I havent heard of anything like that before, so I wonder how people would take to it over here? I think nikes can be more efficient but in the end a car will always be more dependable...especially when it comes to weather and traveling long distances.