Bicycling: virtue or vice?
I sometimes imagine how much gasoline I'm saving when I ride my bicycle to work. At four miles to the college and four miles back again, I'm saving at least a half-gallon each day; that constitutes a respectable $1.45 around these parts. I ride anywhere from two to four times a week, so I'm saving myself enough for a free Big Mac Combo Meal. ;-) Supersize me!
I'd like to think that if more people rode their bikes to work, we'd save an awful lot of gas, to say nothing of money. Not so, not so. Cars that pass me on the road tend to gun the engine as they gather up speed to pass me. I'm riding on two-lane country highways, and they really floor it sometimes, VROOOOOOMMMMMM... On occasion they bestow a puff of not-so-sweet-smelling smoke. The gasoline I'm saving may be balanced out by the extra gasoline they consume passing me.
You'd think that I have plenty of reasons to ride my bicycle to work:
(1) It's healthy... as long as I don't get hit by a car. Or if I don't cause two vehicles to collide; yesterday truck that passed me impatiently right before an upcoming bend in the road, and nearly smashed into a UPS truck coming the other way. I thought for a moment that I was going to have to call an ambulance. The effort kicks up my asthma sometimes, too.
(2) It saves me money on gasoline... although bicycle maintenance isn't necessarily cheap, either, and it takes more time, and everyone knows that time is money, so maybe I'm losing money.
(3) It's a big stress reliever... for me. For my wife, on the other hand, it causes worry. I hope she doesn't read what I wrote above about the two trucks anytime soon.
(4) It gets me closer to nature... such as the roadkill, the bugs that fly into my face, the litter on the side of the road, and the ever-present dogs that would hunt me down for sport, if they could only figure out the mechanism on the fence gate...!
(5) It's cleaner for the environment... and not quite so clean when I show up at the office sweating. Plus, one has to factor in electricity and water consumed by additional showers.
The virtue aspect is questionable from a practical point of view. I guess I should just enjoy the beauty of bicycling.
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3 comments:
Displaying the stunning arithmetic skills I used to acquire my PhD, I miscalculated the amount of gasoline saved. That should have been one third to one quarter of a tank a day.
Everything else is good, though.
I don't think the 'vice' counter-arguments carry much water (at least until you actually have an asthma attack or break your gear shifter or something). I think you should consider it a virtue. 'The Good' and 'The Beautiful' ride a bicycle built for two!
Perhaps it didn't come off correctly, but the "vice" part was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I don't believe that one can be responsible for another's behavior, be it good or bad.
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