Today Show: Bike Use Soars With Gas Prices

And I figure the best way of delivering the message that
Practical Bicycling can indeed be viable is by, well,
simply doing it -- by simply being an example to others.

Well, I know I spend a lot of time explaining my Bike Friday to people every
time I ride it. I recently went on the Amtrak and when people saw me
unfolding it in the parking lot and then the reverse when I returned, I had
a crowd around me. Sheesh! I don't mind telling people about it, but I
have noticed a lot more interest recently.

Pat in TX

Anybody here remember the seventies? This is neither new nor suprising,
nor will it last any onger than it takes for people to realise that it
actually requires work. At which time they'll all go back to using their
cars anyways, complaining about how expensive it is, getting more obese
and dying from the very diseases that putting out a little physical
exertion would have solved in the first place.\

JMHO.

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"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

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On May 31, 2:42 am, (Tom Keats) wrote:

Hear, hear!

And I figure the best way of delivering the message that
Practical Bicycling can indeed be viable is by, well,
simply doing it -- by simply being an example to others.

I think it helps to dress in normal workaday clothes
which look nice but are also cycling-friendly.

It also helps to maintain a happy-go-lucky demeanour.

All of that demonstrates that riding needn't be a
burdenous extra chore in one's life, and that riding
can in fact mitigate what would otherwise be drudgery.

Heh :-) My Leggero Max[tm] cargo trailer absolutely
astonishes SUV pilots at my local laundromat. It folds
down to a bike trailer, and folds up into a shopping
cart or laundry hamper. Or I can fold it flat and use
it like a luggage carrier, or scootch it up flat against
the laundromat's wall so it's out of the way.

The trick is to entice people into it. You surely know
how proselytive phrases that begin with: "Y'know what you
should do?" go over like lead balloons. But if you display
your 'product' actually working at its best, without any
extraneous razmatazz hype, it sells itself. Then,
word-of-mouth takes hold among the populace, followed by
the Keeping-Up-With-The-Jones's effect, and trendiness
ensues. Make it seem like an "underground" thing, and
everybody will want in on it. (I should've been an
advertising exec, but I only use my powers for good.)

Anyways, if we're gonna promote Practical Bicycling,
we have to do Practical Bicycling ourselves, in such
a manner that puts a bee in people's bonnets, and
gets them to thinking about it for themselves.

Couldn't agree more with this.

People are so enamoured w/ motors.

Hiram Maxim said that when the bike came on the scene, it sparked a
demand that it couldn't satisfy.

Robert

In article ,
"Pat" writes:


And I figure the best way of delivering the message that
Practical Bicycling can indeed be viable is by, well,
simply doing it -- by simply being an example to others.

Well, I know I spend a lot of time explaining my Bike Friday to people every
time I ride it. I recently went on the Amtrak and when people saw me
unfolding it in the parking lot and then the reverse when I returned, I had
a crowd around me. Sheesh! I don't mind telling people about it, but I
have noticed a lot more interest recently.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Same here. I do my errand runs in workaday clothing,
and it shows people that riding needn't involve having
to wear funny clothes, nor it being a complicatedly
technical affair.

Folding bikes such as your Bike Friday + multimodal
commuting are a great way to show that life without
a POV is possible.

I'm hearing: "nice bike" from passers-by a lot lately.
I can almost hear their thinkin' gears turning, as
they pensively work their ways toward that eureka:
"Maybe I should give it a try."

My only beef is that with our local MHL, I fear helmets
portray cycling as dangerous, and scares incipient riders
off. I regret bringing the helmet issue up yet again,
but I deem it of greatly importance to get the message across
that practical bicycling[*] is not only viable, but quite safe
when approached competently. I deeply resent being coerced
by my provincial government to publicly demonstrate otherwise.


cheers,
Tom
[*] Heh -- Practical Bicycling almost sounds like
the title of a book, doesn't it?

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In article ,
(It's Chris) writes:
Anybody here remember the seventies? This is neither new nor suprising,
nor will it last any onger than it takes for people to realise that it
actually requires work.

Actually, the 70s gave a lot of folks in Vancouver the kickstart
they needed to take up practical cycling. Yes, some fell by the
wayside. In fact that's how I accumulated my fleet of Apollos --
people bought 'em, decided they didn't like riding, and
gave/traded/sold 'em cheaply to me.

But many of my fellow citizens carried on, and continue to
this day to ride both recreationally and practically.
I daresay we have a thriving bicycling culture here which
is due in large part to the Energy Crisis. Even more so
in Victoria, B.C.

The seventies' so-called Energy Crisis was just a temporary glitch.
I sense we're now on the brink of something much more serious.

At which time they'll all go back to using their
cars anyways, complaining about how expensive it is, getting more obese
and dying from the very diseases that putting out a little physical
exertion would have solved in the first place.\

Biofuel to the rescue! (... maybe.)

Maybe biofuel could be made edible, or at least potable.
It could be advertised as "Good For Man or Machine or Beast."
I could make good use of a decent fractionating column, myself.
Not for vehicle operation, though.

I've noticed lately how publicly-available bike racks are
getting a lot more use. We need more of 'em.
Sheltered bike parking areas would be nice.

At any rate, I figure a lot of people are gonna learn
the hard way, the difference between "/can't/ adapt" and
"don't wanna adapt."

Of course the West (and the [Far] East) could always try to
subjugate Russia, to access all that Siberian petroleum.
But that would be irrational, and as we all know, we humans
are never ever irrational, even when everybody else is ;-)


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In article ,
(Tom Keats) wrote:

In article ,
Matt O'Toole writes:
Bike commuting has been featured a lot in the mainstream media lately but
we know it's on everyone's radar when it hits the Today Show:

http://www.vabike.org/today-show-bik...th-gas-prices/

There was a local TV news item today, about a
bunch of gas theft (syphoning) going on.

It's a sorry state when carheads will turn to
crime instead of bicycles.

I've associated with a number of non-recitivist
ex-convicts who've edified me as how it works on
the Inside. The whole idea of carheads ripping-off
carheads is highly reminiscent to me of their stories.

Well, this is more like convicts ripping off carheads. I assure you very
few normal car drivers are likely to turn to a life of crime to finance
their fuel habit.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."

From: (Tom*Keats)

Actually, the 70s gave a lot of folks in Vancouver the kickstart they
needed to take up practical cycling. Yes, some fell by the wayside. In
fact that's how I accumulated my fleet of Apollos -- people bought 'em,
decided they didn't like riding, and gave/traded/sold 'em cheaply to me.

But many of my fellow citizens carried on, and continue to this day to
ride both recreationally and practically. I daresay we have a thriving
bicycling culture here which is due in large part to the Energy Crisis.
Even more so in Victoria, B.C.
The seventies' so-called Energy Crisis was just a temporary glitch. I
sense we're now on the brink of something much more serious.

Biofuel to the rescue! * * (... maybe.)
Maybe biofuel could be made edible, or at least potable. It could be
advertised as "Good For Man or Machine or Beast." I could make good use
of a decent fractionating column, myself. Not for vehicle operation,
though.

I've noticed lately how publicly-available bike racks are getting a lot
more use. We need more of 'em. Sheltered bike parking areas would be
nice.

At any rate, I figure a lot of people are gonna learn the hard way, the
difference between "/can't/ adapt" and "don't wanna adapt."

cheers,
********Tom
- - - - - - - - - - - -

You're from Canada? you don't count then. My statement was in referance
to us slothful Americans :-3D

- -
Compliments of:
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

If you want to E-mail me use:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

My website:
http://geocities.com/czcorner

It's Chris wrote:

Maybe biofuel could be made edible, or at least potable.

I have a friend with a converted diesel Mercedes that can run on
bio-fuel, but that also runs on pure vegetable oil (you must start and
stop the engine while it's getting fuel from the bio-fuel tank, but once
the engine is running it can be switched to the plain vegetable oil tank).

"Tom Keats" wrote in message
...
Hear, hear!

And I figure the best way of delivering the message that
Practical Bicycling can indeed be viable is by, well,
simply doing it -- by simply being an example to others.

I think it helps to dress in normal workaday clothes
which look nice but are also cycling-friendly.

Tom's right. I hop on my town bike with the fenders and the chain guard and
the step through frame in my white skirt and sandals and pedal off to join
friends downtown for lunch. And sure enough, I glide right up to the
restaurant and snap down the kick stand, pull the key out of the ring lock
and take my purse out of the basket and am ready to go, while they tell me
how much trouble they had finding parking. Heck, turns out that we left at
the same time to go the same distance, but I saved all that time parking.
We don't even have to get into the cost of gas discussion before they want a
bike just like mine, down to the bell.

Tom Keats wrote:

My only beef is that with our local MHL, I fear helmets
portray cycling as dangerous, and scares incipient riders
off.

Helmet laws can have the opposite effect as well.

In my area, which is heavily Asian, there is an unexpectedly large
number of school-age kids riding to school. The schools thought,
apparently, that the parents would be too overprotective to allow their
kids to ride to school, but the helmet requirement helps to give the
parents a false sense of security, for better or for worse. The kids
ride horribly, on the wrong side of the road, on the sidewalk, darting
out from between parked cars, running stop signs and red lights, but the
parents are seemingly unconcerned because the kids wear helmets.

I think you're falling for the fallacies promoted by the AHZs, by
stating that widespread helmet usage makes others thinks that cycling is
more dangerous than it actually is.

Seat belt laws don't portray driving as more dangerous than it actually
is. No one believes that seat belts will save your life in a really bad
accident, yet everyone accepts that wearing them can reduce injuries in
some situations, even if they don't like wearing them.