From:
[email protected]Subject: Re: Why American don't ride bike?
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Message-ID: <7uZhc.7674$Fo4.95248@typhoon.
sonic.net>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:32:03 GMT
Benjamin Lewis <bclewis@cs.
sfu.ca> writes:
>> I'd ride more if the roads were safer.> Then they are likely much, much safer than you think they are.Oh shit! All the old excuses. The real reason is the same as the
ones for my use of my car. Attending dinner at someone's house not
even near my neighborhood, shopping for groceries at a market two
miles from my house where I buy 20 lbs or more of somewhat fragile
groceries including ice cream, going to a meeting of an organization
in SF about 33 miles from my house, taking a 100 mile bicycle ride
over Mt. Hamilton from Milpitas CA that is reached from Palo Alto by
freeways, etc.
Those are some of the excuses for someone who rides at least 200 miles
per week. There are even better excuses for people who don't have my
aerobic capacity and physical fitness that seems to amaze even
bicyclists when they consider by age. I've been doing this for the
last 50 years.
Don't be so self righteous about bicycle riding. I'll bet when you
are a bit older and wiser, you won't be raising a family using only a
bicycle, although there may be people who do so. The neighborhood
store for most of our needs vanished with the automobile. That's one
of the expenses of affluent life. It's the same in Europe and Asia.
Be realistic and face up to the facts. I live in California where
much of this is far easier than in areas with variable weather (rain,
sleet, hail, snow, strong winds, etc) and I use my car often. To make
up for that, I ride to work daily taking a detour that makes the
distance 20 miles instead of +-5miles. When it's shitty weather, I
drive. Bicycling is not my religion and I don't believe in imposing
it on others.
Jobst Brandt
[email protected] 
