There is a practical alternative between the bicycie and a car - or a noisy motorcycle which only seem be available with 750cc or larger engines in the US. This is the small-displacement motor scooter - including electric versions.

My battery electric scooter is street-legal, keeps up fine with city and suburban traffic, can carry a substantial amount of groceries and belongings in lockable compartments, have a range of about 22 miles in hilly areas and somewhat more in flat areas. I am working on an upgrade to Lithium batteries which should almost double the range.

The only downside is their Chinese origin and workmanship, so for now, you need to have some mechanical and electrical skills and tools to get them in reliable condition. This wouldn't be the case if more attention would be given to these by serious manufacturers like Vespa or Honda.

Our mayor celebrated "Bike to Work" day here in Houston today with a photo-op trek down Memorial Parkway. The irony is that much like most of this town the route is void of any bike lanes. Don't worry, they had a nice police escort to keep from getting run over.

I bike to work EVERY DAY and chose not to participate in this sham event. When this city begins to make an effort to accomodate and promote bike commuting beyond lip-service then I'll applaud them. Until then, they get an F- from this bike commuter.

Cool post USAn. How much do they cost roughly and where would I get one?

Every year more than 40,000 people are killed in vehicle collisions in the U.S.; and more than a million more are seriously injured. This is a public health pandemic. Driving is dangerous!

This reality doesn't stop millions of Americans from driving every day. Yet bicycling is perceived as unsafe?!? "I would not take my life in my hands and ride a bike." Huh?!? Bicycling to work offers life-extending health benefits, not to mention huge financial savings (no car payments, gas, insurance, parking, tolls, fines, etc.) Bicycling is safe, period. See:
http://bikecommutetips.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-bicycling-safe.html

I've been a car-free bicycle commuter for more than 15 years. It's only as hazardous as you make it.

Few sources for e-scooters:
(google them)

Revolution EV's
http://www.revevllc.com/ (in Ann Arbor, MI)

Zap electric vehicles company

electric Motor Sports (SF Bay area)

NOVA Scooters (DC area)

Note that many of these scooters may be restricted to 30mph/50kph so they qualify as "mopeds" in many state, but the restriction can be removed from many of them if you don't mind registering them as motorcycles.

Another possibility is hub-motor/battery kits that can be used to electrify an ordinary bicycle. These have a loyal following, but most states consider them mopeds and are limited to 25 or 30 mph in most states or provinces.

Two problems with bicycling now have easy solutions. Longtail bikes like Kona's "Ute" or the Xtracycle "Free Radical" attachment can allow you to carry serious loads of groceries or stuff. No towing of rickety trailers needed.

Electric bikes are now available or electric hubs that fit on your existing bike that will allow you to keep the speed up with traffic on city streets. One lady locally has an electric three wheeled "granny" trike.

Both of these solutions are far, far cheaper than running your car for 3 months. For under a $1000 you can get a bike that will provide most of your transportation needs.

Biking is best done on streets with traffic speed limits of 30 MPH or less and for distances of 5 miles or less one way. Most Americans are forced (by virtue of the way their cities, suburbs, and exurbs are zoned) to commute ib traffic that travels at greater speeds for longer distances than is optimum. Those, along with accustomed habit, are the major reasons why most Americans do not bike as a means of commuter or shopping travel more than they do.

Beyond rezoning for more walkable and bikable urban and suburban spaces, practical solutions to encouraging more biking would be increased construction of bike paths or lanes and development of one way bike rentals like the system being implemented in Paris.

The obesity epidemic. No mention of that here so far. Since the early '80s, the obesity level in the US has risen every single year. Cheap gas, sedentary lifestyles and infotainment are the chief causes. Back in the '80s, When I started hiking in some of the Ntl. Parks, we all wondered why almost no one got out of their cars by more than 100 feet despite the wonders beckoning beyond the windshield. We called them "windshield tourists". Same as it ever was.........

Thanks for the scooter info, USAn.

I've been toying with the idea of biking to work, but the idea of biking 10 miles each way over hill and dale on 52 year old legs then working on my feet all day has been a daunting thing to consider. In short - I don't think I could do it.

Now, a scooter - that's worth a look!

iammyself:

10 miles really isn't that far once you get used to it. As for the hill, they make bikes these days with these things called "gears" and don't forget that on the other side of that hill it's smooth sailing! I know you don't think you could do it, but I think you could.

This article was poorly written, I highly doubt the author is a cyclist. We'll see how the ridership stats change at this time next year when gas is over six dollars a gallon.

"You enjoy it more, you get to work relaxed," he said. "You have a better day."

So true, so true! There are so many less tangible benefits to bicycle commuting. It wakes me up in the morning pleasantly, it helps me unwind after a long day at work, puts me in better touch with the sun and clouds and air and prairie dogs and weather, and produces many many health benefits as a result.

Also, you can bike at any speed, for a light, moderate, or intense workout.

bikertrash May 16th, 2008 12:42 pm wrote: >>Our mayor celebrated "Bike to Work" day here in Houston today with a photo-op trek down Memorial Parkway. The irony is that much like most of this town the route is void of any bike lanes. Don't worry, they had a nice police escort to keep from getting run over.<<

Bikertrash I am amazed that the Mayor and his people aren't embarrased by this shameful parade in light of the deaths of cyclists by motorists who have yet to be apprehended. With the exception of Memorial Park, The Terry Hershey Park bike paths and residential bike paths where the speed limit is 30 mph you take your life in your hands riding on those bike lane restriped city streets.

I remember growing up in New Jersey and up until the legal driving age (17 in New Jersey as opposed to 16 here in Texas) I biked to every place I wanted to go even though I lived in a New York bedroom community. I biked 5 miles to the shopping strip. I biked or walked to my school 1½ miles away. I biked when I took college courses another 5 miles away and I had a ball! The scenic farm houses back then in the late 70's were not yet taken over by sprawling suburbs yet. But I had a great time. It wasn't always a picnic as I was nervous at intersections.

Now I drive a 2000 4 cyl 5 speed manual Toyota Camry and though I get good gas mileage I long for the time when I could ride up and down some of those steep hills on my Raleigh Tour de Leveignar 10 speed. :(

I have to drive every day to and from work. I live 15 miles from my job, meaning 30 miles each day round trip, meaning 150 miles per week commuting. If I lived close enough to work to walk or bike, I would, but I dislike the city where I work and I love where I live, so I have no intentions of moving closer into work.

And I haven't ridden a bike since being hit by a speeding car while riding one 37 years ago and very badly injured. I have permanent problems resulting from my injuries in that accident, so.....I don't really have any intentions of getting back up on a bicycle. The only one I have ridden lately is the exercise bike in my physical therapy sessions in the past year and a half. I'm on my 3rd go-around in PT due to complications of my long ago injuries that have arisen in middle age. They must love me there at the PT clinic. I sure do a good job of keeping them in business being kind of one of their regular patients......

Now, if we had more buses that ran more places and more frequently, or if they ever brought back the old commuter trains that used to run through these parts 45+ years ago, well, that'd be an option I'd hop on in a New York minute. But as much traffic as we get on our streets around here, riding a bike means taking your life in your hands, what with about every other car I see having someone yakking on a cell phone while driving. No, thank you. I won't share the streets trying to ride a bike with distracted drivers all around me. I've already had my one brush with mortality, thank you. That one was enough to drive some sense into my then teenage brain about the dangers of bike riding in these parts.

Ethanol based fuels for bicycles have been available thousands of years before the bicycle was invented. As a practical matter, you should wait until after the day's rides and chores are done before using it. These fuels have names like beer and wine. At my size, I can walk 2 miles on 1 beer, I don't know the mileage on a bike.

rueters is crap. ITS ALL PROPAGANDA. people like sallyuukent are gonna be afraid of change instead of demand something different. people like sallyuukent are gonna drive there cars becuz they have never thought that commuting by bike could be made safer. people like sallyuukent are selfish, obedient, and obviosly....quite ok with spending 4.00 or more on gas. people like sallyuukent sound so helpless and trapped by the PRIVILEGE the state gives you.to drive. people like sallyuukent may find themselves homeless on the very land there forefathers fought and died for. Bikes dangerous? not as dangerous as people like sallyuukent.

ellydozer--it is obvious that you have never experienced being hit by a car with nothing between you and it besides air. The old Native American saying that you should not judge someone until you have walked a mile in their moccasins would be some good wisdom for you to ponder.

The things that are stopping greater bike usage are the way we have designed our urban and suburban living spaces (everything important is isolated from the people who need access to it) and the speed at which traffic is required to travel to accomodate this bonedheaded stupidity. Solve those problems and bike riding will pick up while car usage will decline.

I bike to work every day, but I live 5.5 miles from work in bike friendly Portland. My take on the whole thing is this. As many of us as possible who can bike, should. It really does feel great and you are actually multi-tasking -- getting your daily aerobics while traveling to and from work. Those who can't bike for whatever reason should so something else to save fuel. There are multiple options. If we all do something serious, and work to adjust public policy to accommodate and support fuel-saving options, the cumulative effect will be huge, without forcing anyone to take any particular action that does not work in their life. If we all just talk about why any particular solution can't work for us and therefore do nothing, then one day, we will be forced to take dramatic action.

I bike to work in suburban Maryland about half the time, and take the bus most of the other days. Its 5 miles each way, which is easy. I've talked to people who do much more-- in the extreme case, over 20 miles each way (but that was a bike mechanic).

There are a million excuses not to ride but none of them matter. I understand why people are scared. When I first moved here i was scared just to drive a car even though I've been driving for 30 years. If you have too much to carry, then simplify your life and stop trying to take work home. If its too far, ride part of the way then take a bus. Don't buy a road bike or a mountain bike, get a commuter bike with a generator light, fenders, a chain guard, and a rack. If you have to dress nice for work, change jobs (just kidding, leave a few sets of nice clothes at work where they will stay clean for weeks). If you're worried about the bike getting stolen, get a cheap bike and an expensive lock and you will be fine. Have to pick up your kid from the bus stop? Get her a bike too and leave it locked near the bus stop during the day. Young child? I used to use a trail-a-bike to drop my kid off at the daycare on my way to work.

The world isn't going to change for you, so get off your ass and start pedaling.

I worked a celebration station in Bellingham, north of Seattle today.

Usually we have a hundred or so people come by. This year we had 400.

It was the first nice warm day of the year, but still.

Also a friend wanted to spend her tax refund check on a Trek 520 commuter. They were sold out till September.

The bike shops are slammed.

My numbers are a little soft but still. And we have a new mayor who is way behind bicycles.

However we had four fatal bicycle car crashes this year, so we are not there yet.

More public transportation would be great. If you believe people like James Howard Kunstler about "The Long Emergency" of peak oil, global warming and other converging emergencies, and if you've seen the film, "The End of Suburbia," you might conclude that we need not only more bikes and public transport, but we also need sustainable urban planning so that people can live closer to where they work.

But we live in the United States of Oil Dependence, where the tire, auto and oil companies once oversaw the buying up of streetcars, so that we would be MORE dependent on automobiles. They oversaw the promotion of the suburbs as "easy"/"country" living where everyone gets a lawn and a flower garden to tend.

Capitalism is not about bikes and public transportation. It's about creating the illusion of needs, and making people work harder to fill those illusory needs. It's about the relocation of wealth and fruits of labor to the rich capitalists.

We are so far lost inside that world that we're like drunks, talking in a drunken stupor about how nice it would be to have a sober life.

The reason some folks don't like the neighborhood where they work, and live 15 miles away, is that instead of the wealth and capital staying in the neighborhood to feed good schools and community centers, health clinics, etc., it's all being sucked out by our corporate system that so likes sucking.

But you can bet, if gas were expensive enough, we'd think again about living closer to where we work, and we might take better care of the neighborhoods and schools.

If we really got wise and got dependency treatment for our oil addiction, we'd make local, renewable energy, and instead of sending oil money overseas to help other nations buy weapons to use against their own people, and the US empire, we could use more of that money locally, paying the local solar and wind farms to charge our scooters overnight instead of paying Exxon and the coal and natural gas companies.

We shouldn't be thinking only about biking and scooters. We should be thinking about changing the world.

There is an easy fix to this gas-global-warming-warring-imperialistic-fossil-fuel-crisis.

Just follow the model of the mission to the moon... but this time make it a mission to a superior battery technology. Once we have a serious battery we can drive our little hearts out, cleanly, renewably, harnessing the wind, sun, tidal energy, thermal energy, hydroenergy.... whatever to go ELECTRIC.

But the powers that be wouldn't like that now would they? They might lose some value on their fossil age stocks. And the internal combustion engine makers wouldn't have so many little parts gizmo's to sell you every 50K miles.

check out "Who Killed the Electric Car"

http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com

The problem with riding a bike is that motorists not only don't respect their right of way, they harass and terrorize bike riders. Who would want to ride a bike in that climate?

gee, i wish i had the opportunity to help shape the urban infrastructure that you old farts had.......cuz the transportation and auto industries did it for you decades ago. Fuel was much cheaper. they were not interested in promoting cycling. if you still depend on your car, enjoy it while it lasts...........i prefer to live in reality and have made changes accordingly. maybe this is evolution, or natural selection.

I bike and I got hit by a car--twice. One time was hit and run and I'm still recovering from the other time, which broke my spine. Even so, I still bike. The key point here is to remember that bikes are vulnerable because the cars are dangerous.

Yes, the USA is one of the most bike-unfriendly places I've ever been, but it does not require a bike-based infrastructure of bike paths to make the roads more bike-friendly. There are three things that can make the road safer for everyone:
1) Lower speed limits (making the road safer for cars, too)
2) Increase the number of bikers (cars will learn to look)
3) Education--teach drivers to share the road and teach bikers to follow traffic laws.

The city, state/province country gets millions every day in gas tax simple as that. In many areas a city putting in a bike path would gut those taxes they make. To me is the main reason for not seeing more bike lanes or paths plus electric cars or other types like as I have read on this web site like the Air Car. MONEY from taxes

One of my brothers was killed riding his bike after being hit head on by a motorcyclist who was racing through a residential neighborhood. This hasn't stopped by other brother, my children or myself from cycling. Why? We still will stay healthier and live longer than continuing the sedentary lifestyle most Americans are moving toward. In San Francisco, there is a "critical mass" bike ride once a month. Three things that help are the "three E's" education, enforcement, and engineering. Once a certain mass takes to the roads on bicycle, demand for implementation of the three E's will rise. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition, is in communication with the local motorcycling community, and is working on education, and developing a culture toward sharing the roads safely. This all takes time and effort, but the end result will be more people sharing the roads safely while using less gas, and improving health outcomes. We haven't set the date yet, but if you live in the Bay Area, we will be having a second annual Ed Weiss memorial bike ride late July or early August. You can sign up to receive their emails through their website. Another benefit of moving away from auto use, is that neighborhoods see a drop in crime when more people are on foot or bike, and it's easier for people to get to know each other once they exit their cars.

The safest way to bike, in many cases, is use the sidewalks. Where I live in So. Cal., they are mostly empty anyway. What is really needed is new infrastructure, like converting railroad lines and access roads for power lines and rivers (or flood control channels) to non-motor transportation.

New battery technology will provide more efficiency, but that is not much by itself, the energy must come from somewhere. The real problem is that motor vehicles have a low payload efficiency (payload/total vehicle weight). It wastes tremendous amounts of energy while making them tremendously dangerous to others.

Tax fuel usage to compensate for cost of its use, and the market will go a long way to correct the problems. For starters, 80-90% of the US "Defense" budget is spent on oil wars, put the tax to pay for it where it belongs. Add pollution offsets, put collision liability here, and motor vehicle infrastructure costs, and there will be money to do a lot of good.