Like many bicycle enthusiasts have done at one point or another, I used to track my trip distances, average speeds, and weekly, monthly and annual mileage. It was a way to measure “progress” and “performance” as I imagined it. To what end, I can’t really say, since throughout most of that time I wasn’t racing. Perhaps I was “racing” with myself. Whatever the reason, that way of thinking clearly grew out of our still prevalent proclivity to view the bicycle as a sporting good here in the U.S.

Now, as a person who loves riding bikes, but is even more concerned with leaving the car in the garage, I use a different metric to track progress. Now, I think in terms of miles not driven, or what I like to call “replacement miles”. For someone like myself who is passionate about a future with fewer cars on the road and more bicycles being used for transportation, this is a more satisfying and effective way of looking at it. Don’t get me wrong; riding for fun is all well-and-good, and I highly recommend it. But now, if I put the bike in the car and drive across town to participate in a recreational ride, those miles don’t “count” because they didn’t replace a car trip*.

If tracking your total miles and elapsed times provides motivation to keep riding, by all means, keep doing exactly what you’re doing. But, if reducing automobile use is important to you, perhaps thinking in terms of replacement miles makes more sense. Doing so gets me out of the weeds and helps me to stay focused on the larger goal of only using the car when absolutely necessary.

In highway engineering parlance, Complete Streets are roadways designed with all road users in mind, including transit riders, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists. Well-designed Complete Streets enable users of all types to move safely along their length.

A portion of a heavily-trafficked 4-lane, 45 mph arterial in my area was recently turned into a Complete Street. Prior to the conversion, riding a bike on this section of roadway was not a pleasant experience. The shoulder was narrow, rough, and strewn with debris, and because motorists often travel at freeway speeds on this road, taking the lane was completely out of the question.

Recently, the roadway was re-paved and widened, and a full-width bike lane and sidewalk were installed. The improvement in the riding experience was astonishing; the road went from being one to avoid, to being a useful and comfortable route to get across that part of town.

While the philosophical arguments for and against bicycle-specific infrastructure continue unabated, out in the real world Incomplete Streets don’t hold a candle to Complete Streets.

It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta’ do it

I get a lot of questions about bike commuting from my coworkers and people I meet on the train and bus. They’ll ask how far I ride, how long I’ve been bike commuting, how much my bike cost, how much money I’m saving, etc. They’re often congratulatory, while sometimes also stating what a sacrifice it must be, and how they “could never do that”.

But here’s the big secret: bike commuting is no sacrifice at all. As a matter of fact, I often feel a pang of guilt for doing it. It’s so much fun, and I derive so many benefits from it (health, wealth, peace of mind), that I sometimes feel as if I’m cheating the system. Bike commuting, so it seems, defies the capitalistic logic of “getting what you pay for” by requiring very little, while providing copious benefits in return.

So now, when someone asks why I commute by bike, instead of expounding on the ecological and economic benefits, I first talk about how much fun it is, how good it makes me feel, and how little effort it takes. I tell them about the things I see along the road (birds, kids, dogs, turkeys, hawks, squirrels), the way it clears out the cobwebs in the morning and flushes out the stress in the evening, and what an utter relief it is to be free of driving related stress and anxiety.

I hope that by sharing my big secret—the fact that bike commuting is not a sacrifice at all, but a richly rewarding endeavor—people will be more likely to consider it for themselves.

There are countries in Europe where the bicycle is so commonplace and utilitarian that it ranks alongside household appliances and farm equipment. Most bike riders in those countries no more consider themselves bicycle enthusiasts than the typical American in his SUV considers himself an automobile enthusiast. It’s hard to imagine that kind of ubiquity here in the U.S. where the bicycle mode share is still hovering at somewhere around one-half-of-one-percent nationwide, and where, a majority of bike riders consider themselves enthusiasts.

Yesterday, over at Bike Hugger, DL Byron made the excellent point that there still exists a major cultural divide between Europe and the U.S. in regards to the bicycle. As he put it, “We’ve got this misplaced vicarious belief system that we can become Copenhagen or Amsterdam while marketing dollars are spent on convincing you that one company’s carbon layup is better than another.”

The question is whether it’s possible, or even desirable, to change our way of thinking. Perhaps bicycle enthusiasts are actually our best evangelists. Perhaps, instead of trying to change the thinking of existing bicyclists, we need to employ riders from all of our enthusiast subcultures in the effort to get more people using bicycles for transportation.

As much as I’d love to see a mode share in the U.S. that rivals those of the great bicycling countries in Europe, I can’t help but feel something valuable would be lost if we turned the bicycle into a purely utilitarian tool like a garden spade or vacuum cleaner. I wonder if it’s possible to maintain our enthusiasm for bicycles and bicycling while mode shares grow into the double digits? It’s a question that won’t be answered anytime soon, but I, for one, hope that when (if?) the time comes, we don’t lose sight of the beauty and wonder of our favorite machine.

In our hometown, bicycles are the go-anywhere vehicle. Under California law, bicycles have a right to be on the road just like any other vehicle (with a few restrictions). We also have a fairly extensive network of on-street bike lanes and off-street multi-use paths at our disposal. And while I don’t normally recommend sidewalk riding, doing so is legal in our city, and it occasionally makes sense along certain parts of our multi-lane, high-speed parkways. In our area, bicycling is truly the one mode of transportation that has no limits.

Even though we have the right to ride on all of the above mentioned facilities, we still sometimes sense resentment from our fellow road and trail users. Motorists often seem surprised and annoyed when we take a lane, pedestrians and joggers often seem startled to encounter us on the sidewalk, and dog walkers often seem nonplussed when they have to leash their dogs and confine themselves to one lane of the multi-use trail as we pass. The one space that unambiguously belongs to bicyclists is the bike lane.

Of course, a bike lane is simply a stripe of paint on the ground, but a clearly marked bike lane makes a powerful statement of ownership. In essence, it says, “This space belongs to bicyclists. If you’re not a bicyclist, stay out.” And while I’m fully aware of the argument that bicycle lanes may send the message to motorists that bicycles shouldn’t be in the traffic lane, I believe the stronger, overriding message is, “Bicyclists are important here. They own a portion of this road outright, so give them some room, and give them some respect.”

So, even though we have every right to take a lane or ride on a sidewalk (both of which we do whenever it’s prudent to do so), and we certainly enjoy the quiet beauty of our off-street bike paths, we like our bike lanes best because they’re the one piece of pavement we can unequivocally call our own with absolutely no argument from other road users.

As much as I’d like to believe otherwise, I keep coming back to the idea that the real game changer is going to be an increase in gas prices. I believe this because I saw it with my own eyes in July 2008 when gas prices topped out at $4.12 per gallon. During that summer, you could barely get a bicycle on the Amtrak commuter train in Northern California. It got so bad (good?) that there was one car completely dedicated to hauling bicycles, with full racks and bikes overflowing into the aisles. That was also the period when bike industry insiders were heralding the new era of transportational bicycling, and in some cases, even gloating about the industry being recession-proof.

Ah, how quickly things can change.

By December of the same year, gas dropped to under $2 per gallon, effectively putting and end to the party. By July of the following year, the bike racks on my train were once again only half full, and the bike industry was straddled with an excess of inventory that was purchased during the prior year’s feeding frenzy. It appears we’ve pretty much been on a flat line ever since.

Certainly, there’s a no limit to the amount of work that can be done in the areas of advocacy, education, and product development. Improved infrastructure, public outreach, riders’ training, and more-and-better tools designed specifically for the transportational bicyclist are all well and good. I’m afraid, though, that these won’t be enough to spur the ten-fold increase in bicycle use we’re all hoping for; it appears only a permanent increase in gas prices will do that.

I do a lot of bus riding as part of my commute. To stave off boredom, I scout bicycles and keep a rough tally in my head of how many and what type of bikes I see during my trip. Around where I live, the #1 type of bike being used for transportation is the generic sub-$500, hard-tail, suspension-fork mountain bike. The Trek 820 shown above is a typical example, though I see similar bikes from all the major brands. These may not be ideal bikes for how they’re being used, and they’re certainly not glamorous, but they’re pretty tough, they’re reasonably comfortable, and the price is right. Most that I see still have knobby tires installed, and a good number seem to be ill-fitting. I suspect a simple tire swap, along with some assistance from a local bike shop to dial in the fit, would dramatically improve the ride experience for many of the people on these bikes.

While I’m always happy to see anyone on a bike, and these mountain-bikes-being-used-as-commuters seem to be working fairly well for a surprising number of people, it would sure be great if there was a more road-worthy alternative that was widely available in this price range. I’m imagining a simple TIG-welded steel bike with a rigid fork, upright geometry, roadster bars, cushy tires, single chainring up front, 7-speed cassette in back, wide saddle, metal fenders, and folding wire panniers. If they can build a 21-speed, suspended mountain bike for under $500, it seems like someone should be able to build my fantasy city bike and sell it for under $500 as well. Linus is doing something along these lines (see below), though they’ve chosen to go with a 3-speed IGH which might be a tough sell to non-bikies who have come to expect at least 21 gears. The $64 question is whether a bike like my 7-speed could go up against a 21-speed mountain bike on the sales floor of the typical neighborhood bike shop or big box store (I’m somewhat doubtful).

I’ve argued many times for adjusting our thinking regarding bike pricing, and I still feel that as a society we undervalue bicycles. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to people who balked at the price of a $1000 bicycle while not even blinking an eye at the price of a $20,000 automobile. And while we can argue for a change in perspective on bike pricing until we’re blue in the face, that’s not going to change the fact that for the foreseeable future, an overwhelming majority of the bikes on the road will continue to be from the low end of the price range. It would be great to see more bikes in this price range designed specifically for the commuter/transport bicyclist.

I have an irrational fondness for lugged-steel bicycle frames. I say irrational because, with the advancements made in metallurgy, today’s production TIG-welded frames are very nearly the functional equivalents of production lugged-steel frames, a fact that hasn’t always been the case. For much of the 20th century, lugged frames were preferable to welded frames because the method for joining lugs to tubes (brazing) was easier on tubing than high-temperature welding. This gentler method made possible the use of lighter, thin-walled tubes. Now, modern tubes are available that are not negatively affected by the high temperatures introduced during TIG welding, so sadly, the need for lugs has been made moot in most practical applications.

I say “sadly” because none of this has diminished my love of lugs, something that runs much deeper than any pragmatic consideration. Lugs, to me, will forever represent quality and craftsmanship in bicycle manufacture (this is most likely due to the fact that I grew up during the heyday of the lug in the 1960s and ’70s). The elegant lines of a finely cut lug hark back to an era when hand craftsmanship was the rule, and things such as lugs held aesthetic as well as practical value. And even though there are some gorgeous TIG-welded bikes being produced today, a weld will never speak to me in the same way as a lug.

The bright side of this story is that there is a virtual renaissance in lugged-steel frames happening among small custom builders. The downside is that bikes from many of these builders are priced well beyond what many people would consider reasonable for an everyday utility bike. There are still a small number of what can loosely be considered “production” lugged frames on the market, though these are still beyond what most people would think of as “budget” priced, due mostly to the fact that even in a production setting, lugged construction is more labor-intensive than welding. Whether a lugged frame is worth this premium depends upon the individual; it certainly is for me.

We live in a middle-class suburb; once something hits our neighborhood, you can pretty much assume it’s squarely in the mainstream. For many years, the vehicle of choice among the adolescents in our area was the skateboard. You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing little packs of kids practicing their kick flips and doing their best to deface public property. These days, we’re seeing fewer and fewer skateboards. It took a while for it to sink in, but it recently dawned on me that the skateboard is slowly being replaced by the fixed gear bicycle (or one of its SS variants) in this age group. At least where we live, it appears the fixie is the new skateboard.

Those of us who care deeply about the bicycle and bicyclists hate to see bike riders behaving badly. We have the feeling that any bike rider who is riding inconsiderately or recklessly reflects badly on the rest of us. It’s easy to blame these new, young riders for their reckless behavior, but it begs a question for me: How can we expect riders to understand the rules of the road and behave like vehicle operators when they’ve had no more training in bike riding than they had in skateboarding? For them, the bike is just another way to fit in with the crowd and get around to meet up with friends. It’s really no different than how many of us used our bicycles when we were teenagers. Given the complete lack of education on this subject, expecting these young people to understand vehicular cycling is totally unrealistic.

So, how do we fix it? Certainly, blaming the kids is not the answer. And expecting non-cycling parents to fill the void is unrealistic as well. The solution has to be education. Most of these kids are not from cycling families, so it will probably need to happen through the public schools. And the earlier we can educate kids on bicycling best practices, the more likely they’ll develop good habits that will carry forward into adolescence and beyond.

So, the next time you see a young person weaving through pedestrians, cutting across lanes against traffic, or blowing a stop sign, remember that they know not what they do. And also remember that we’re highly likely to see more of the same in the future unless we help young people understand the rules of the road by implementing more bicycle training programs.

Jack of Many Trades

The diversity of specialized bikes available today may be greater than at any other time in history. Just think, you can go out today and purchase a cargo bike to carry 400 lbs., a folding bike that’s small enough to fit in the trunk of a sub-compact car, or a fully-suspended mountain bike to blast down a dirt road at over 40 miles per hour.

Bikes such as those listed above are highly specialized, while others are designed to be used for a wider variety of purposes. These jack-of-all-trades bikes have been somewhat pushed aside by specialized machines over the past couple of decades, but with a growing interest in using bikes for utility and transportation, versatile bikes are making a big comeback.

Every bike, even those that are designed for a narrow use, can be ridden in at least a small range of circumstances outside of its comfort zone. For example, a fair number of people use their racing bikes for commuting, and while these bikes don’t have facility for hauling cargo, riders work around the limitations of their bikes by using backpacks and messenger bags. And while a mountain bike may not be ideal for road riding, I’ve seen plenty of people ride long distances on the road on mountain bikes outfitted with street tires.

We tend to like bikes that are designed from the start with versatility in mind. Sure, we have specialized bikes like folders, and they’re wonderful for solving very specific problems, but our everyday, go-to bikes are those that help us accomplish a variety of tasks with minimal effort.

A bike that fits our personal conception of “versatile” will, at minimum:

• be able to haul a week’s worth of groceries for one;
• roll well enough to cover 30+ miles on the road with minimal effort;
• handle well on a dirt path;
• fit standard bike facilities such as bus racks and bike lockers;
• have sufficiently wide gearing within a range that’s suitable for local terrain; and
• be set-up to handle changing weather and lighting conditions.

Each person’s list is going to be different depending upon their needs, but the wider the range of tasks any one bike can help a person accomplish, the more it’s likely to be used for everyday utility and transportation, and the more satisfying it’s likely to be to the utility/transpo bicyclist.

A Bridge to Sharing the Road

Studies have shown that the number one reason people don’t ride their bikes more frequently is the fear of cars. Considering this, the most obvious way to help newcomers feel more comfortable is to provide high-quality, separated bikeways. While it’s unrealistic to hope for a 1-to-1 ratio of bikeways to roads, even short stretches of bikeways that connect adjacent neighborhoods and road networks can encourage newcomers to give bicycling a try.

Consider the above beautiful piece of bicycle-specific infrastructure in my hometown. It’s part of a relatively short trail network that connects four neighborhoods with a shopping area and a school. Just this morning I needed to run an errand to the shopping area. The direct route would have taken me along a two lane, 50 mph road. I’ve ridden the road many times, and though I find it safe, I can imagine it would be intimidating to an inexperienced rider. By instead taking a longer back route through a neighborhood that leads to the bikeway, I reduced my exposure to high speed traffic by approximately 75% while only adding about 5 minutes to my travel time. I suspect that for many people, just having the option could mean the difference between taking the bike or driving the car.

For the foreseeable future, bicyclists here in the U.S. will need to depend upon existing roadways for much of their route planning, but strategically placed separated bikeways can serve as safe havens for novices in the process of developing the confidence and skills they need to share the road with cars, while also providing a pleasant respite for those already out there mixing it up with traffic on a regular basis.

My first motorcycle was a bright yellow 50cc Honda Mini Trail. That little gem was quite possibly the best Christmas present in the universe, followed closely by the silver sparkle helmet to go with it. Rule one in our house was no helmet, no motorcycle riding. The rule didn’t apply to bicycles, which was ironic considering the fact that we were far more insane on bicycles than we ever were on motorcycles (three of the worst injuries I had as a kid were on a bicycle, though a helmet wouldn’t have made a difference in any of those cases).

I pretty quickly figured out that silver sparkle wasn’t so cool, and that real motocross riders don’t ride Hondas (this was around 1972). This was a result of hanging out with the older kids on their CZs and Bultacos, with their European riding gear and mysterious brand names and logos spelled out in Italian and Spanish. The allure of the exotic was irresistible, and looking back on it, it’s sad to think my little Honda with its silver sparkle helmet so quickly and completely lost its wonderment and appeal.

Fast forward to 2010 and, serendipitously, a silver sparkle helmet has once again made its way into my life. I was lucky enough to win a photo contest and one of the prizes was a Nutcase helmet. Michael was due for a replacement, so I asked her to choose one for herself. She ended up picking a silver sparkle beauty that took me on an unexpected trip down memory lane. The helmet reminded me that innocence is fleeting and fragile, and that we’re much too quick to toss aside the simple and pure for the worldly and sophisticated. I suppose silver sparkle will always represent that innocence for me.

Project on Deck

Sometimes I just make up reasons to work on my bikes. It might be a complete drivetrain overhaul or something as simple as replacing the bar tape, but it seems I almost always have some project or another in the works. I guess I have to face the fact that I’m a gear head of sorts, and working on bikes is very nearly (but not quite) half the fun. Add to that the fact that I’m a bit of a perfectionist and some might say I have a full-blown addiciton to wrenching on bikes. The good news is that I have the family’s entire fleet to attend to, as well as no shortage of toys on loan from friends and sponsors, all of which help to keep me busy and out of trouble.

My latest jag was sanitizing the drivetrains on every bike in our stable and converting from wet lubes to hot wax. We’re now all squeaky clean and quiet. Mrs. EcoVelo was kind enough to find an old crockpot at a thrift store for my paraffin/beeswax experiments, so we’re in great shape now; no more wax drips on the kitchen counter! [BTW - If you're a waxer, I've made some interesting discoveries involving mixing paraffin with beeswax - drop me a note if you'd like my formula.] That endeavor provided a deep sense of satisfaction that might be a little hard to understand for those who are less obsessive about their bikes.

This coming weekend’s project is a bar re-wrap. I understand complementary colors, and I use complements in design work all the time, but somehow I never fully embraced the orange/blue combo on my Sam Hillborne, so I ordered up some brown Newbaum’s that should nicely harmonize with the green/brown/orange color scheme on the rest of the bike. Of course, I have to make it more complicated than necessary, so I’ll tie-off the wraps with some twine, and slather the entire bar with a 50/50 mix of amber and clear Bulls Eye shellac. Can’t wait!

All of this is in good fun and, fortunately, it has the practical benefit of keeping our bikes in great shape for presentation on the blog. And while I sometimes feel as if I’m the only obsessive mechanic out there (people constantly tease me about our clean bikes), I know I can’t be the only one. So, how about you? Are you a wrench junkie? Do you enjoy working on bikes almost as much as riding them?

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[Uploaded to Flickr by KK+]

Everyone I talk to is incredibly frustrated and disheartened by the ongoing environmental catastrophe caused by the April 20th BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and resultant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s inability to stop the oil leak, as well as our feelings of being powerless in the matter, are at the heart of this palpable frustration and despair. Of course, we can apply pressure on our representatives, as well as express our feelings in public demonstrations, but because of our utter dependence on automobiles in this country, I suspect many people are unwilling or unable to hit the oil companies where it would really hurt — in the pocketbook.

There was an interesting piece on this subject posted on Boing Boing the other day. Let me quote some figures from the article:

• Approximately 9% of the gasoline consumed in the U.S. is from offshore drilling.
• Americans averagely travel 40 miles and consume approximately 1.8 gallons of gasoline per day.
• Reducing our consumption by 9% (the amount represented by offshore drilling) would place us at 1.6 gallons, or 35.8 miles of travel; only 4.2 miles less per day.

As can be seen by the numbers above, even small changes, if undertaken by a large enough number of people, have the potential to affect outcomes. I’m not naive enough to think we’re going to stop offshore drilling solely by riding our bikes to work, but I am optimistic enough to think that the example we set can have an impact on those around us.

For those of you who are already doing what you can to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, thank you and keep up the good work. And for those of you who have been thinking about making a change, there’s no better time than right now.

Just a Couple of Mods

I’ve never been able to bring a new bike home and just ride it as is. I always feel compelled to change at least some little detail to make it my own. It could be something as simple as changing the color of the bar tape, to a full blown rebuild with new bars, cranks, saddle and the whole deal. Some bikes closely fit the picture in my mind of how they should look; these tend to get left alone. Others may have a “problem” such as a mismatched set of racks, or a roadie saddle on a utility bike; these don’t make it very long before they go under the knife. Off-the-shelf bikes such as my Surly tend to get more seriously worked over, whereas bikes that are built to order like my Rivendell require less fussing and finessing.

I’m guessing this compulsion goes back to my childhood. I can remember being as young as 6 or 7 years old and rebuilding my bike in the garage with my older brother. He helped me take a scratched up, ugly old Schwinn Stingray, and rebuild it into a kid’s dream bike with purple sparkle paint, motorcycle handlebars, and a racing seat. That bike was so cool, and I was so proud that we built it together, that it left a mark on me. Perhaps going through that process is what set me up for a lifetime of tinkering and tweaking on bicycles.

What about you? Can you leave well enough alone or are you compelled to modify your bikes whether they need it or not? Would you rather search for that perfect bike and buy it ready to roll, or do you gain more satisfaction starting with an ugly duckling and turning it into a swan? Share your story; we’d love to hear it!

Considering that ditching a car can save someone upwards of $10,000 per year, it’s not all that surprising that many of our readers own more than one bicycle. Bikes are a super deal when looking at the relationship between usefulness and price, and the recurring maintenance costs of owning a bicycle are miniscule when compared to those of maintaining an automobile. Plus, having at your disposal a carefully selected assortment of utility bikes makes it much less likely you’ll need to fall back on using the car due to not having the right tool at hand.

Recently, we’ve been refining our collection down to just those bikes that match the specific needs we have as a family. This refinement process has me doing a lot of thinking about specialized versus all-purpose tools. I keep ruminating on the idea of an ultimate all-purpose bike; a single bike that could meet every need I have as a transpo/utility bicyclist; the bike that would cause me to whittle my collection down to exactly one; my proverbial “desert island bike”.

So far, this bike only exists in my mind’s eye. The problem is that physics and the laws of nature get in the way. What I want is a single bike that’s light and lively, stiff and strong, durable and damage resistant, reliable and trouble-free, able to carry large loads while being aesthetically pleasing in a timeless sort of way, and priced within reason. Regardless of what we’re talking about (including bikes), it seems it always goes back to the old “pick any two” project triangle. And unfortunately, my imaginary desert island bike exists only in the no man’s land located at the dead center of the triangle.

I have three bikes in my possession right now that are closer to being my ideal all-purpose bike than any others I’ve owned over a 30 year period. This is either a testament to the fact that I’m getting smarter and less impulsive in my bike purchases, or an indication that manufacturers have heard the call and they’re producing bikes that are more versatile than in years past (I suspect it’s the latter). In any case, I’ll probably whittle the group down to two at some point in the future, though I say that with a fair amount of dubiousness (the problem is that I like all three too much and enjoy riding each for their unique, though fairly similar qualities). Whether I’m ever able to cull the stable down to a single bike is a wide open question.

What about you? Are you living car-free or car-lite with a single bike that meets all of your needs? If you have more than one bike, can you imagine a time when you’ll need only one? If you had to choose just one, what would it be? And if you were having a custom bike made for an extended trip to a metaphorical “desert island”, what would it look like?

A Creative Solution

When we went car-lite a few years ago, I’m pretty sure our kids thought we went off the deep end. At that time they were 12, 14, and 16 and the idea of their parents being seen around our conservative suburb as the “weird hippie couple on bikes” had to be a living nightmare. Fast forward three years and surprisingly, they’re pretty well-indoctrinated. Our now 19-year-old son is a serious transpo bicyclist who routinely rides his Breezer to college and other events 10-20 miles away at all hours of the day and night. Our youngest, who has not quite made the transition to using her bike for all of her local transportation needs, has at least embraced bike culture and loves to participate in tweed rides and other events. And while they were initially petrified at the thought of it, now they seem downright proud to have the old folks out setting a good example in the neighborhood.

One of the little challenges of getting groups of teenagers around from here to there is the fact that everything seems to be decided at the last minute. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the proverbial best laid plans of mice and men were put to rest by a group of teenagers. Add to this the fact that our kids have chosen to wait until they’re older to get their driver’s licenses, and we’ve had to get creative at times.

One handy tool is the cargo bike. Most people probably think of the cargo bike as a way to haul things such as groceries, building supplies, or furniture. What they may not realize is that a bike like the Mundo (shown above) can also tow a bicycle and carry passengers, replacing an SUV in the process. For example, a mother of two can tow one bike behind her to after school pick-up, give the second bike to the older teenager to ride, and give the younger kid a lift on the back of the cargo bike (assuming the teenagers don’t mind being seen with Mom… LOL). In the case of the Yuba, there’s also a child seat available if there’s a third, younger child in the family. Mixing and matching these various options goes a long way toward meeting the transportation needs of spontaneous and fickle teenagers.

We keep saying this over and over, but we’re firm believers in the idea of blooming where you’re planted. We also believe getting creative can lead to many wonderful and inspiring transportation solutions. Our family is living proof that even with a house full of teenagers in the suburbs, it’s possible to simultaneously limit your car use while maintaining familial bliss, and yes, even have a grand time while doing it.

At least anecdotally, it appears the number of suburban and rural utility bicyclists is on the rise. I suspect this group of transportational bicyclists is much larger than most people realize — even rivaling urban bicyclists in numbers — yet it has been largely ignored by the bicycling press who seem to prefer to focus on the more hip and trendy aspects of urban/transpo bike culture (i.e., cycle chic, tweed, fixies, etc.).

While I understand the issues surrounding sprawl, there are still a number of valid reasons people choose to live in the suburbs and beyond, including an aversion to the intensity of city life, work that involves suburban/rural activity, the need to be near family, etc., etc. Whatever the reasons, and regardless of the current emphasis on re-urbanization, a large number of people are going to continue to live in suburban and rural areas. And while long commutes and freeways full of cars are certainly not the answer, we have to acknowledge that a complete restructuring of our cities and their suburbs is not going to happen for a very long time, if ever. It’s in our best interests to promote utility bicycling and transit use among this group, and get on with fully integrating our transit and biking infrastructures to efficiently and sustainably move people from the suburbs to the city and back.

I believe there is tremendous potential to increase the use of bicycles for transportation among those who live outside large urban centers. Sure, the distances outside the city tend to be longer, and bicycle-specific infrastructure can be sparse, but the roads are also less congested. I live in the suburbs and I’ve made it work; if it works for me, it can certainly work for many others as well. Changing perceptions about what’s possible, as well as educating people about how to integrate with transit, are key. And because suburban trip distances are greater than what are typical for the city, the potential rewards in terms of reduced emissions are enormous.

I’d be interested to know what percentage of our readers live in either suburban or rural areas.

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Underpinning everything we do here at EcoVelo is the desire to reduce our dependence on the automobile while encouraging others to do the same. We strongly believe reducing automobile use can improve our neighborhoods, our cities, and ultimately, the world.

While this is reason enough to leave our car in the garage, truth be told, there are other, more selfish reasons why we ride bikes, including:

• the feeling of well-being that comes with physical activity in the out-of-doors;
• the tangible health benefits that come from daily exercise;
• the surprising amount of money that can be saved by eliminating an automobile;
• the greater connection with our community that comes from being out and exposed to our neighbors;
• the increased appreciation of nature that comes from daily exposure to the elements; and perhaps most importantly for us,
• the sheer joy of sharing the experience with friends and family.

Taken together, these benefits make a compelling case for transportational bicycling, and on a personal level, they make bicycle riding an extremely important part of our daily lives.

We’d love to hear from you about why you ride and what brings you back to the bike, day-after-day, year-after-year.

[In a cool bit of synchronicity, our friend Tammy over at Unconventional Photography and Rowdy Kittens posted a photo today with the caption "Why We Ride" (it also happens to be the photo of Logan's bike that was published to the EV Gallery yesterday). And no, we didn't get on the horn this morning to make sure our blog posts were topic-coordinated... :-) -ed.]

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed the recent addition of a pair of folding bikes to our stable. Our transportation needs, as well as our future plans, have been evolving, and as a result we’re making a few adjustments.

As we’ve become more involved with the bicycling community in the larger surrounding area, we’ve had a need to transport our bikes more frequently. When we can, we either ride or take the train to various events, but often times the distances are too great or the transit schedules simply don’t work. In these cases, we’ve had to resort to renting or borrowing a truck, or simply skipping the event (we’re not fond of vehicle bike racks, but I’d rather not go into that here). Now, with a pair of folding bikes, we can either drop them in the back of our little car and drive to the event, or take them on the bus when the train schedule doesn’t work (not all of our buses have bike racks).

As our family is growing up and heading off to college, we have mid-term plans to downsize fairly dramatically. When that happens, storage will become even more of a premium than it is now. Because of the work we do here at the blog, we often have at least one or two extra bikes around that we’re evaluating or photographing, so it only makes sense to keep the physical footprint of our personal quiver to a minimum, something the folders help with immensely (see above). This doesn’t mean we’ll replace our everyday, full-sized rides with folders, but it does mean we’ll have a mix of bikes that have less overlap and more completely cover our range of needs as we continue to do less driving and move toward a 100% car-free lifestyle.

We also hope to do some multi-modal touring in the future. We love trains, and nothing goes together better than a tiny folding bike and a passenger train. Bromptons are one of the select few bikes that will fit between the seat backs on passenger trains, which makes them packable on almost any train in the country. We envision a day when we take a trip across the country, partially on trains, partially on bikes, stopping along the way to do some bike touring in interesting towns, then getting back on the train to move to the next interesting town for another day or two of exploring. We can’t think of a better way to see the country (for us).

Some people will say owning 4-6 bikes to share among 2-3 people is extravagant. From our perspective, what is extravagant is the fact that 70% of Americans drive to work in cars, and that as a country we own 1.17 motor vehicles per licensed driver at an average cost of $9,641 per year, excluding loan payments (according to figures from the AAA). In this context, owning a few specialized bikes to help reduce your automobile use appears to be a great investment.

People who live in urban areas just a few blocks from their work and essential services have completely different needs than those who live in suburban or rural areas. Physical terrain such as hills, and weather considerations such as snow and rain, also factor into the equation. The goal is to figure out how best to utilize bicycles as car replacements in your life. This could mean anything from a simple one-speed crusier, to a garage full of specialized machines, and it could mean making a few adjustments as your transportaton needs evolve over time.