Cars...FFS, encourage getting places by BICYCLE. Bikes are a machine for liberation. Yeah, sure, lots of people think 'many deaths by bike' but the stats show otherwise. I'm 61 years old, been riding my bike most days for 50 years - in the northeast, the first 25 in NYC and Boston, since then, in rural New England. My kids, i 'forced' th…
Cars...FFS, encourage getting places by BICYCLE. Bikes are a machine for liberation. Yeah, sure, lots of people think 'many deaths by bike' but the stats show otherwise. I'm 61 years old, been riding my bike most days for 50 years - in the northeast, the first 25 in NYC and Boston, since then, in rural New England. My kids, i 'forced' them to ride their bikes growing up, and now in their 20s, they're strong as f*ck, used to weather, can take care of themselves....being on a bicycle was a big piece of their foundation. Less cars, more bikes; less 'new technology'; more human technology.
I love bike riding and always have. I remember that feeling of freedom when I first learned how to do it. Amazing!
I also remember when I turned eleven or twelve and I was allowed to ride to the strip mall near our neighborhood. I’d go to the pizza place and get one slice and a root beer. I felt like a real adult.
Funny, i feel the same way when i see people encased in cars which haven't really changed all that much since the mid 1900s!...cars COULD be way smaller, lighter, stronger, quicker longer lasting....made w space frames, carbon fiber, smaller form factor etc. Instead....a misapplication of best design practices; an extra application of 'marketing'. There's a great bunch of work by Armory Lovins around how to make better design choices around car design and house design too. But! instead, we choose phony opulence. I think about this often when i am zipping by cars stuck in traffic.
Ha! had to look up 'World Economic Forum'. Nope - 'space frame' = much stronger than current typical car design. Space frames are far safer than current SUV design. And check out 'death per mile' rates for bicycle mile VS car mile, though of course in the intersection between a car and a bike, it's curtains for the latter. There are many different ways to be in the world; living in fear - death trap - and not using intelligent technology - that's assuming the corporatist POV that the WEF 'great idea' comment WANTS you to take. When you can be put into a box, for marketing, well then, you're easy to separate from your cash. When one lives outside the constraints of conventional life design - which a bicycle reminds one to do EVERY DAY - one is free.
I agree that I think if kids were allowed to bike freely all over town, then it wouldn’t be as scary to do it in a car later on. It was my first taste of freedom as a kid and where I learned to solve problems when they popped up. I let my kids do this and my oldest who loves to photograph trains and planes does bike all over to capture images of trains at least. It’s not feasible for him to bike to the airport though, but he could get there by public transportation easily enough which I will let him do on his this summer (if only to experience the process of having to depend on public transport and it’s cost).
You're probably right. We "free-ranged" over a radius of many miles pre-driving age (during the sixties). "Be back by dinner time" was the only admonition.
Yes! Summer holidays: up in the morning, fixed your own breakfast, threw on some clothes (no phone, no cash), ran outside, grabbed the bike (which lay on the lawn all night), rang your friend's doorbell, and headed out for a day of adventure and exploration. The only rule: be home by suppertime.
Agree. Kids no longer are allowed to bike anywhere alone. So, kids aren't that into biking. And that refers to those whose patents bother to teach them how. I was horrified when I learned my sister and husband did not teach their kids to ride bikes. They made up a zillion excuses. For them, it was pure laziness. They justified not doing it claiming fear of strangers...but the reality was they were too immersed online to get off their behinds and teach their kids.
Neither child knows how to drive today and show no desire . Both stayed home to go to college. It is a sin, IMO. They have not yet lived at all. They do not know how, either. Both have taken jobs in the local town and still live at home. They could do better elsewhere but they are, of course, afraid to leave Mom and Dad.
Many municipalities allow bikes on public transit. NYC did even in the 70s when it was 'against the law'; and since then, big changes all over. If yr in a place w an airport, chances are some to the airport buses allow bikes on / on the front bike rack even. Esp because of labor force needed at airports; pay is low, so if yr a hustler w a bike...you bike to the bus to the airport. It's a way for kids to mix with labor also, and see just what we run on...cheap labor. Bikes = libration, can't say it enough (also, if there ISNT a bike friendly bus to the airport, there are bike buses to within biking distance OF the airport. Which is how i discovered lots of parts of Queens. Which to this day, are still invisible; like Brigadoon or any other mythic hidden place.
Cars...FFS, encourage getting places by BICYCLE. Bikes are a machine for liberation. Yeah, sure, lots of people think 'many deaths by bike' but the stats show otherwise. I'm 61 years old, been riding my bike most days for 50 years - in the northeast, the first 25 in NYC and Boston, since then, in rural New England. My kids, i 'forced' them to ride their bikes growing up, and now in their 20s, they're strong as f*ck, used to weather, can take care of themselves....being on a bicycle was a big piece of their foundation. Less cars, more bikes; less 'new technology'; more human technology.
I love bike riding and always have. I remember that feeling of freedom when I first learned how to do it. Amazing!
I also remember when I turned eleven or twelve and I was allowed to ride to the strip mall near our neighborhood. I’d go to the pizza place and get one slice and a root beer. I felt like a real adult.
As my husband always points out when he sees bike-lanes with no one in them, bikes are 19th century technology.
Funny, i feel the same way when i see people encased in cars which haven't really changed all that much since the mid 1900s!...cars COULD be way smaller, lighter, stronger, quicker longer lasting....made w space frames, carbon fiber, smaller form factor etc. Instead....a misapplication of best design practices; an extra application of 'marketing'. There's a great bunch of work by Armory Lovins around how to make better design choices around car design and house design too. But! instead, we choose phony opulence. I think about this often when i am zipping by cars stuck in traffic.
Make them smaller and lighter and they’ll be as big a death trap as a bicycle! Great idea and in keeping with WEF ideas.
Ha! had to look up 'World Economic Forum'. Nope - 'space frame' = much stronger than current typical car design. Space frames are far safer than current SUV design. And check out 'death per mile' rates for bicycle mile VS car mile, though of course in the intersection between a car and a bike, it's curtains for the latter. There are many different ways to be in the world; living in fear - death trap - and not using intelligent technology - that's assuming the corporatist POV that the WEF 'great idea' comment WANTS you to take. When you can be put into a box, for marketing, well then, you're easy to separate from your cash. When one lives outside the constraints of conventional life design - which a bicycle reminds one to do EVERY DAY - one is free.
Bikes are fun! Maybe you don’t like riding but no need to neg on those of us who do.
I agree that I think if kids were allowed to bike freely all over town, then it wouldn’t be as scary to do it in a car later on. It was my first taste of freedom as a kid and where I learned to solve problems when they popped up. I let my kids do this and my oldest who loves to photograph trains and planes does bike all over to capture images of trains at least. It’s not feasible for him to bike to the airport though, but he could get there by public transportation easily enough which I will let him do on his this summer (if only to experience the process of having to depend on public transport and it’s cost).
You're probably right. We "free-ranged" over a radius of many miles pre-driving age (during the sixties). "Be back by dinner time" was the only admonition.
Yes! Summer holidays: up in the morning, fixed your own breakfast, threw on some clothes (no phone, no cash), ran outside, grabbed the bike (which lay on the lawn all night), rang your friend's doorbell, and headed out for a day of adventure and exploration. The only rule: be home by suppertime.
Agree. Kids no longer are allowed to bike anywhere alone. So, kids aren't that into biking. And that refers to those whose patents bother to teach them how. I was horrified when I learned my sister and husband did not teach their kids to ride bikes. They made up a zillion excuses. For them, it was pure laziness. They justified not doing it claiming fear of strangers...but the reality was they were too immersed online to get off their behinds and teach their kids.
Neither child knows how to drive today and show no desire . Both stayed home to go to college. It is a sin, IMO. They have not yet lived at all. They do not know how, either. Both have taken jobs in the local town and still live at home. They could do better elsewhere but they are, of course, afraid to leave Mom and Dad.
Many municipalities allow bikes on public transit. NYC did even in the 70s when it was 'against the law'; and since then, big changes all over. If yr in a place w an airport, chances are some to the airport buses allow bikes on / on the front bike rack even. Esp because of labor force needed at airports; pay is low, so if yr a hustler w a bike...you bike to the bus to the airport. It's a way for kids to mix with labor also, and see just what we run on...cheap labor. Bikes = libration, can't say it enough (also, if there ISNT a bike friendly bus to the airport, there are bike buses to within biking distance OF the airport. Which is how i discovered lots of parts of Queens. Which to this day, are still invisible; like Brigadoon or any other mythic hidden place.