Why We Should All Ride Bicycles

I used to own a car. I used to drive everywhere from work, to the store, to the gym, for vacation, etc. I’ve been carless for almost four years now. That is a long time. People ask me how I can get along without a car. It is possible, and we humans have lived most of our history without automobiles.

Everywhere I need to be, I don’t need a car for. I have a bicycle that gets me to where I need to go. The grocery store, the gym, and the places I work are bike-able distances aka less than 3 miles. If I want to make special trips I can either bike or take the bus.

I must admit, however, that I tend toward the lazy. I want things done and I want them done ten minutes ago. Slowly, my patience in this regard has risen. But I’m not wrong in assuming that things should really be closer. The car has made it possible for our civilization stretch, but it also creates artificial distances in the places we live.

This is the reason we should all ride bicycles: everything would be much closer together. You wouldn’t have to drive all over town to get done what you needed done. Businesses would be close to homes (to reduce commute time and leg strain) and a variety of businesses would have to arise to complete and compliment what is needed in a particular area.

In turn, there would be a larger sense of community as people would be able to recognize those the bike past, wave, talk, etc. Roads would be vastly smaller, safer, and much less costly as they would only need to support bikes. If someone needed to travel long distance they could take a train/public transit to get to where they needed to go and these would have special roads.

Suddenly that house on a hill would not look as attractive, and more people would move to flatter areas. In turn, the general health would improve, because, hey, we’re all getting a lot more exercise!

Of course this is not viable right now, but I think, in the future, bikes will become a lot more popular. Doesn’t the world sound a little more enjoyable if you aren’t in bumper to bumper traffic and instead commute a shorter distance while getting exercise?