We need to pick our battles carefully. According to some environmental scientists, we have as little as ten years to make a serious dent in our CO2 emissions, otherwise we face the risk of runaway global warming.

As much as I like the idea of pedestrian and bicycle friendly cities, the resistance is still great on that issue. The reality is that we still trying to overcome a century of infrastructure built around the automobile and the attitude that your car is your freedom.

However, even in redneck Texas, people are coming around to the idea of mass transit. They are fed-up with hour long commutes each way, air pollution and expensive gas.

In most communities this is the easiest battle to fight. It promises the greatest ROI, many people are now receptive, and it can be won. Once mass transit happens on a large scale, the reduced automobile traffic makes the bicycle a more attractive option. Let's fight one battle at a time, our energy and political capital is limited. We don't need to be fighting wars on two fronts.

Getting on our bikes is a start, but also money, being the bottom line, Has to change also. We make things we don't need. The US is built around the car, that has to change. So many changes for people to make and only when things get bad will we start to change.

If the thought of pure pedal power is too much to bear, try an electric bicycle.

"As for energy use, electric bikes typically consume fuel at an average rate of 100 to 150 watts of electrical energy, against 15,000 or so for a car (admittedly travelling faster, out of town at least). In terms of fuel consumption, an electric bike achieves about 800-2,000mpg (280 - 700 km/litre). No other commercially available vehicle can match figures of this kind.

If it's hard to place these numbers in your own lifestyle, think of a 100 watt electric light bulb burning for an evening - that's enough energy to propel an electrically-assisted bike for 20 to 40 miles..."

http://www.atob.org.uk/electricbikeadvantages.htm

I have to agree with HopeForAll. The biggest problem facing this world is the rampant consumerism that plunders resources and creates pollution. And all for what? Satisfying some fatuous belief that buying Brand X will make someone attractive to the opposite sex? I know I'm preaching to the converted here but I have to ask, just how DO people change habits that have been encouraged for years?

Yes! Legislate bicycle only traffic lanes in busy central locations. Offer federal and state subsidizes for the creation of the traffic lanes. Convert unused inner city train spurs. Light Rail projects get federal and state funding, why not bike lanes? Discount coupons for purchase of a new bicycle with the intent to promote access to low-income residence and minors and young adults. There are already subsidizes created to get helmets on kids.

¡si, claro!

Why isn't it illegal to make large SUV's like suburbans and escalades and others like them? Only construction workers and farmers should be allowed to have large vehicles. Anyone who thinks that is going too far or "not freedom" is not realizing the reality of the situation we all have to deal with.

Agreed, happy Days. Better yet, simply ban non-commercial use of engines larger than, say, 2.8 liters (170 in^3) and the vehicle size will take care if itself. To those who say that such measures are some kind of imposition on their "freedom" I would ask, do we allow the "freedom" to use of dangerous industral chemicals or explosives outside of specific commercial applicatons? What about traffic laws? Aren't they impositions on your freedom?

Electric-assisted bicycles are a great idea, there are even inexpensive hub-motor kits to electrify an existing bicycle. I went a step further and use an electric motor scooter, which is 4 times more efficient than it's 50-150cc counterpart.

Those are wonderful suggestions. It is particularly keen observation that money must be changed. Money is an information system that delivers wrong, suboptimal results.

However- none of our prescriptions will be achieved until the beliefs and desires of the public change very much. Those in turn are the product of our institutions of mass culture (the education we are teaching, the message in the mass media, and the message from the pulpit.) The global pop has increased to 7 billion so quickly, and the circumstances have changed so drastically that the common assumptions of the past (heroic individual leadership, etc.) do not apply. What is manifestly true is control *by* corporate media. Chomsky has it nailed,

Todd

The rapid increase in poverty in the world and here in America will put a lot of people on bicycles or on foot (probably without shoes).

Maybe the captains of finance who Bu$h the inferior serves have a SOYLENT GREEN plan in mind?

I can't find a production car that gets anywhere close to state of the art efficiency. There is minimal mass transit in the U.S. and zoning basically requires the use of automobiles to get to work, stores, school and housing.

I welcome anything to help but I can't picture thousands of people going 20 miles round trip to Walmart Supercenter with the groceries on an electric bike.

The bicycle is a nice thought; however, the reality is that no one is going to trade the convenience and comfort of a car for a bicycle in the southern US during the summer. The same is true in the northern US in the winter. In large cities the distances are too great and weather too extreme and unpredictable for masses to use bicycles. Subsidized mass transit would be a much better fix.

"I can't picture thousands of people going 20 miles round trip to Walmart Supercenter with the groceries on an electric bike."

Well, I don't go to Wal-Mart, but I do ride my e-scooter to the food co-op, and back - about 21 miles, on a charge, easily. At least 6 full grocery bags can be carried under the seat and in the givi trunk behind the seat. The scooter's range can be made almost unlimited through the discreet use of electric receptacles found on sides of buildings, sidewalk planters, even some newer public park benches - the intended use there being for laptops.

I also specifically chose a home within a short walk of basic shopping and frequent bus service - but nothing like the walkability of the old neighborhood in town.

I agree that we need radical overhaul of zoning. We start with greatly restricting, rather than requiring, parking in development plans, abolish the cul-de-sac, and mandated high floor-area ratios for buildings.

Yes, climate, is a factor.

I do have to put the scooter away every winter. But as far as using bicycles in the US south in summer, assuming flat terrain, why not? The bicycle produses a cooling breeze, and only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun as they say in India. Or do you mean they need the car because of the A/C in it? Well, somehow, civilization fluorished just fine before the invention of the air conditioner. My brother lived for several years in Baton Rouge in a house without A/C.

Gregory-Nice strawman arguments against bicycles. Many people ride in the southern US during summer and conversely many people bike in winter in northern US and many in big cities. The more gas prices increase, the more bicycles will be on the roads. Bicycling will be more a choice of economics than personal comfort in the future.

Has Anyone seen an Xtracycle bicycle? It's an elongated bike with a frame with bike bags on the side that can haul large objects. Think of a first world version cargo bike. With one of these, you can haul many grocery bags home.

shakker...can't picture thousands of people going 20 miles round trip to Walmart Supercenter with the groceries on an electric bike.

When put that way, it's a hard image to imagine. I think five mile routes are what to expect from the average rider. Let's see if I can do the math. Take 1000 town people who bike 5 miles a day, five days a week. The average town MPG is, what, 21MPG? 1000x5x5= 25k 25k/21= 1190.4762 gallons of fuel.

I think more people would ride bikes if safety issues could be resolved. Car-bike aggression issues are a top priority. That is why there are bike rallies where we ride in large packs to increase our visibility. Maybe you know what I'm talking about, maybe I'm talking to a bicyclist.

People are afraid of being run over by a truck, and for good reason. Take away the risk, build bike/ped only routes as main traffic routes and who knows what options are out there!
---------end---

Cities and sprawl...

In the cities I've lived, bicycle and transit served my needs. I didn't own a car until I left a city hub for a few years. I could and have been able to live in hubs where within 5 miles, I could get all my needs met. Anything outside of five miles, and I think people need light rail. The bus system is no longer efficient and most riders seem in the 2-5mile range.

"on your left"

conundrummer, no I hadn't heard of xtracycle until you mentioned it.

thanks for info.

check out some of these cool rides -out of Amsterdam,

http://www.workcycles.com/workbike/

Rob just beat me to it. If the thought of dragging groceries back by bicycle bothers people, try a rickshaw instead. I'm serious.

http://www.cyclesmaximus.com/index.html

Why do all the Common Dreamers want legalistic, bureaucratic solutions when the most logical approach is to use old fashioned capitalism? Gas tax and tolls (the former to come closer to making traditional vehicles more nearly pay for the cost of highways, parking, hospitalizations resulting from auto use AND the latter to allow the existing road system to be optimized for time of day use and need to use the road. To balance the incidence on the public, funds collected should in part be used to assist public transit options - reducing cost to the user.
Loopholes in regulatory approaches are to be expected. Remember the SUV is a creature created by the CAFE standards.

Sounds good to me. If US Customs would re-open the bike lanes at border checkpoints, it would e a good start.

shakker July 2nd, 2007 4:49 pm
"The rapid increase in poverty in the world and here in America will put a lot of people on bicycles or on foot (probably without shoes)."
Actually, shakker, the opposite is happening. The rapid increase in PROSPERITY in China, India, and South East Asia is putting a lot of people into CARS, and that is one reason fuel prices are spiking upwards.

The average snowfall in Northern Maine is twenty feet a year, ever rode a bike in those conditions? Then there are North and South Dakota, Wisc, Minn, etc. We could give it a try, I dunno about every place, but it does work in China. ____ For the poorer people.

We have a complaint that every solution on this board is legalistic and bureaucratic and then we get the suggestion that we should fiddle with taxes and tolls. If that isn't a legalistic, bureaucratic solution, I don't know what is.

Obviously part of the solution to the problem of global warming is to increase walking and biking. But like every other problem that has faced mankind since the relationship with fire began, the solution requires many interacting parts. Other parts to this solution are solar, wind, wave and geothermal power generation, changes in the engineering of the internal combustion engine, changes in consumerism, changes in lifestyle, changes in ... The list goes on and on, but taken together, they MAY be able to prevent the planet from changing to a condition that precludes the continued existence of our species as in extinction. It is kind of sad to think that we may have more generations of ancestors than we will of descendents.

Our present health care mess, our electrical power generating mess, and all the other attempts at privatizing functions that are not amenable to privatization show that governmental interference is necessary in some circumstances. (As a Texan, don't get me started on the rank stupidity of trying to privatize every thing. Gov. Goodhair and his minions, I'm talking to you, Hawkins, need to go to jail.) But also, free enterprise things like the cost of fuel can be part of the solution. It is not a problem that will be solved by a single change, but will take many changes to solve the problem.

Excellent DKM, you said it all__ and well said.

Have you read about the Power Towers presently being constructed by the Aussies and Chinese? Just one of the solar/wind towers, will supply the energy needs for 10,000 homes. No fossil fuel is used.

Those towers would be a great supplement for hydro-electric dams and thermal energy power sources. Their power could also be used to crack sea water for hydrogen fuel at a very affordable price. It would be a start. Oil companies who also control many coal and uranium mines would not like it.

Tell the UN to go to hell. I don't believe and I don't read whatever comes out of that whorehouse, because it is in the pocket of America.

conundrummer wrote...Many people ride in the southern US during summer and conversely many people bike in winter in northern US and many in big cities. The more gas prices increase, the more bicycles will be on the roads. Bicycling will be more a choice of economics than personal comfort in the future.

At some distant date you are probably correct; however, by the time we reach that point we will have past too many global warming tipping points and it will be too little too late.

I live in the Dallas area and I ride a road bike for recreation. However, it is way too hot and dangerous to be riding in city traffic on errands. I am an avid cyclist and I won't take that chance. I don't see many others willing to sweat like a pig and have their clothes stuck to them just to go a restaurant, grocery store, hardware, or much else. Also, from about noon until sundown the ozone goes off the charts....it's not a good time to exerting yourself, especially in heavy traffic.

Unless you live in a place like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio or some other major city, it is probably hard to understand that traffic is always heavy. "Rush hours" last seven hours a day. Try riding your bicycle in bumper-to-bumper traffic next to a Hummer or Suburban with the driver talking on a cell phone.

Someone mentioned not going out in mid-day. In most of Texas during the summer, the temperature is still ninety degrees at 11:00 PM. In the morning humidity is stifling. Worse yet, virtually none of the roads I've seen in Texas were built to accommodate bicycles. Traveling many of our metropolitan roads is suicidal on a bicycle. As you've probably guessed, that's where all the shopping is located.

For the past hundred years, cities in the US have been built around the automobile, even if we all cycle a little, we will still be primarily driving cars. Most Americans live in metropolitan areas today and distances are way too great for a bicycle to be practical.

People won't make inconvenient and dangerous personal choices in the short-term for some nebulous long-term benefit that they poorly understand. Humans simply aren't hard wired that way, it is a function of our evolution.

We need mass transit now if we are to have any chance of avoiding the worst impacts of global warming. Bicycles are a dangerous distraction in that regard. Conservatives love all of this talk about how much impact bicycles can make, that allows them to drag their feet even longer on improved mileage standards for cars and funding mass transit.

Exellent points Gregory, recently we lost a neighbor who was peddeling merrily along in a bike lane. A cell phoner in a SUV ended his ride. Well, he went out with a bang.

Evelyn,
The bicycle wasn't the problem. The distracted driver was. When more people bike the death toll goes down. First the more cyclists that are out in a given area, the more drivers are watching out for them. Second by switching to a bike from a motor vehicle an individual is far less likely to kill somebody else.

Weather Weenies,
I stopped driving several years ago and get by fine cycling year round in Chicago. Riding in snow or on ice is not very difficult with the appropriate gear. For all those who say they can't ride a bike because it gets too hot or cold or whatever why not ride when it's nice out? The recommendation wasn't to never drive, simply to drive less and bike more. And they didn't say everyone had to do so, just that humanity as a whole must. But if you live in such a hellish place that it is never nice out you might consider moving. If you have zero amenities within walking or biking distance you might also consider moving. If you are entirely auto dependent what will you do if some event triggers fuel shortages and stations in your area go dry?

Gregory,
Mass transit can also be a good part of the solution, especially rail based transit. But Chicago already has one of the better public transit systems in the country and I far prefer riding a bike. I really like having transit available as an option and even use it once or twice a year but a bike is quicker, cheaper and usually far more pleasant. And with my bike and a trailer I can go out and get a dozen sheets of drywall or a refrigerator or a piano or anything else I've ever needed or wanted while with transit just a few bags of groceries becomes a hassle.

Todd Allen, are you a lineman for the Bears by any chance? You pull a dozen sheets of drywall on a bike trailer? Hope you never get pissed at me.

No, it wasn't our neighbors fault, it was the idiot on the cell phone, same as driving drunk. But bikes and vehicles do not mix well and I prefer electric cars. If we do get to where hydrogen fuel is readily available, that would be the best solution. It is possible, if we get a leader who has a brain.

Bikes are essential to not only dealing with carbon dioxide emmissions, but also essential is the spending on an infrastructure that encourages bikes. We need to be thinking of closing major streets to cars, or at least one lane of them. We need to think of constructing bikeways removed from the main roads like Anchorage, Alaska has done. We need to think of more scenic trails between urban areas. Only then will the average citizen begin to think of biking as a reasonable, save, and fun choice to the automobile.

John

Corinthian Planner-
Why should we look to good old capitalism when that is the source of this mess?
That's like an alcoholic who insists just another drink will solve his shakes.
Capitalist are in addictive denial.

Sylvia sez:

If the thought of pure pedal power is too much to bear, try an electric bicycle.

"As for energy use, electric bikes typically consume fuel at an average rate of 100 to 150 watts of electrical energy, against 15,000 or so for a car (admittedly travelling faster, out of town at least). In terms of fuel consumption, an electric bike achieves about 800-2,000mpg (280 - 700 km/litre). No other commercially available vehicle can match figures of this kind.

**************

Righty O Sylvia!

Our mass transit system has bike racks on the front of their buses. This allows a rider (electric or conventional) to convenintly take his wheels along when the distance is too long or dangerous (going over bridges or on interstate highways).

The opthamologist who examines my eyes rides close to twenty miles round trip every work day on his bike--for him money is not an issue but physical health and reduction of pollution is. If enough people started biking maybe we could run the cars off the road the way they did to horse drawn carriages and bikers.

I commute to and from work about 8.5 miles each way and I do it about 80% of the year (I don't leave for work on a bike in a serious rain or when the road surface is icy). I live in post-industrial Ohio and I see more and more people doing the same ... not great numbers but more. Lots of folks where I work are asking me about it. If we can create some enthusiasm we can start to shift increasing numbers of people.

It has to start small and build as do most cultural changes.

I agree that the best way to drive it the way we want to drive it is to tax fuel to make it more expensive and to use the tax proceeds to improve biking and public transportation.

What's up ToddAllen?

My daily commute from Chicago to the suburb of Elk Grove Village is 20 miles each way. I make it everyday and on time in all but the most beastly weather. My 4 years as a bike messenger has made me impervious to pretty much everything - crappy weather, inattentive drivers, malicious taxi drivers. I haven't driven a car in 13 years. If I can do this so can anyone. That being said we need to invest heavily in mass transit ... except our desire for more F22's and helicopter gunships to fight off those nasty terrorists comes first. Priorities you know.

Bicycling is certainly one of the best ways we have on hand to lower our fossil fuels consumption. I bike as much as possible, at least in good weather. I would do it more, but I have come to fear for my life. Too many drivers of massive SUVs think I'm an object there for them to kill at their pleasure. Until the state recognizes the value of bicycling and provides reasonable lanes in which bikers can safely navigate, I am forced to limit my use of my machine.

Poet wrote:

"Our mass transit system has bike racks on the front of their buses. This allows a rider (electric or conventional) to convenintly take his wheels along when the distance is too long or dangerous (going over bridges or on interstate highways)."

Thanks for that, Poet. You see, an absurdly simple idea with huge results. I'm going to jump the gun here and pre-empt all those who want to say "Yeah but what if everyone wanted to stick their bicycle on the front of the bus?" Here in the UK, some of our buses pull small trailers for passengers' luggage. I'm not going to say any more, I think you can all see where I'm coming from here.

I don't know about anyone else but I look forward to the day when the last SUV is recycled (no pun intended) into rickshaws. The day can't come soon enough.

Great remedy for the obesity and diabetes epidemic. But we prefer to do it in the gym on a stationary bike in front of a tv set under the AC. If we could tap into the energy expended in gyms, we would probably achieve the same energy savings.

Cities with density and lots of amenities are nice, but high housing prices encourage people to move further and further away where they can get more for their money. More means a monstrous house that is subjected to endless home "improvements," which represents an "investment." In other words, this is tied to the insane American housing situation. My brother lives in a townhouse where the closest "corner" store is literally 10 miles away, and more and more people live like this. This situation can't be changed overnight. It would be anathema to most Americans, but one solution would be to gradually reducing the speed limit by 5 miles per year, to a maximum of say 30 mph, reducing the amount of distance people could plausibly travel to work. This would encourage denser development and smaller houses, and a return to more localized activities, not to mention it would equalize the speeds of cars with bikes and make it safer for bicyclists. I'm not saying it would be politically popular but it would be a mechanism to get things to change.

Ok, so some of you folks have put me to shame. I only live ten miles from work and drive my car every day. Granted, I have a 35 year old 10 speed Schwinn and 52 year old knees, but I'd hazard a guess that I could ride my bike to work at least a couple of days a week.

And I think that's the point - it doesn't have to be binary - all or nothing. We can each do whatever we can do to make this work. Part of my solution may be to find work closer to home (this is not an easy task in Maine, but one that I am cognizant of). I know my lifestyle is part of the problem and there are things I can do (and have done) to make my life more benign.

Of course, it doesn't end with individual lifestyles. We need to exert whatever influence we can on our governments to help achieve more sustainable lifestyles. That, and a good dose of ecological reality will make people change their own lifestyles.

Who would of thought the private car model of development could be a disaster for the People's Republic of China?? If the CCP can control the number of babies people can have, why not take firmer measures to limit the amount of CO2 people can emit? The answer is that they won't, because of greed. The CCP makes a killing by keeping the economy booming with high dependency on fossil fuels, and the emerging auto industry doesn't hurt things. This is a race for GDP growth not sustainablity. It's time for a change in the PRC!

High speed rail transportation & community owned/shared bicycles would do wonders - for the people.

Of course the insanely greedy bastards who run the auto, oil, & insurance industries would fight that tooth and nail, but they've had their way for too long already.

Complacency leads to involution.
Discontentment & revolution leads to evolution.

Riding bikes will remedy obecity, pollution, and overpopulation. those who cant or wont find a way to convert to riding will perish. it is the future as i see it. the future looks good.

As gas prices go up as they must, the US will begin to resemble Europe, with Smartcars, motorscooters, bycicles, sailboats, water and power saving devices and so on. When gas gets really expensive, think of Oriental rickshaws and the horse and buggy. That would be nice. Most would live in city apartments where everything is within walking distance and the country would be used for growing crops and forests to fight global warming, instead of suburban sprawl.