Many of us here in bacon land ride bikes as basic everyday transportation, not just for recreation. And if you look around, we’re not alone. The good weather and the bad gas pricing has nudged people out of the bucket seat and onto the saddle in recent months. Still, as Jeff points out on bikecarson.com, you’d be hard pressed to call this a sea change.
I’d add to the discussion that getting around without the use of your car at least once a week, or even once a month, if everyone does it, can save money for fuel, maintenence on your car, and save us all a lot of money on maintaining the roads. Check out the RTC Washoe Website for information on Public Transportation and the RTC Rideshare program, where you can use a database to connect with people with similar schedules and commuting routes EVEN ON BIKES.
Also, let’s not loose sight of larger problems when gas prices are high. Carbon emissions and air quality is still a major issue here in the Truckee Meadows. Hopefully our resident CO2 expert can elaborate on that for us. And riding some crappy moped you bought at a garage sale might save you some cash, but it’ll put out way more emissions than an H-2. In the long run that will be seen as stepping over dollars to save dimes.
And I can’t help but wonder when people will be priced out of their pickup trucks. I’m not talking about people like the GrislyBikeGeek who uses his truck for work. I’m talking about that douchenozzle in the magnum powerwagon with dubs and the NorCal sticker who floors it on the green and rides your ass only to have to hit the breaks going uphill! You have to assume that behavior will change before people get rid of their vehicles which obviously are closely tied to their self image…
-M
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