Hybrid Cars Get Compliments -- Why Not My Bike?

My wife and I do not own a car. Going car-less seems like the right thing, based on what we know about global warming.

Granted, we don't much like cars, and we chose our house because we can walk or bike to most places we need to be. Still, once in a while, it would be nice to get a few kudos. The old pop hit celebrates "two less lonely people in the world." Why doesn't anyone celebrate two less polluting people in the world?

We recently exchanged houses with a couple that owns two Toyota Prius hybrids. While staying at their place, they let us use one of them. During the month that I drove it, three different people complimented me. And yet, during the seven years we have been car-less, only one person has complimented me. (Thanks, Mom.)

Strange how people think it cool to drive a "green" car, but if they meet someone who doesn't own a car, they infer financial limitation, not ecological choice. To decide not to have a car, unless you live in that rare city with good public transportation, seems a bit extreme and carries the vague threat of dependency. As if I'll mooch a ride home at any moment.

Let's turn this on its head for a moment: Imagine that someone you admire invites you to her house. You're filled with envy at how energy efficient it is, how free of clutter. The sleek Shimono bicycle inside the empty carport also arouses your admiration. The next day, driving to work, your friend cycles by and you slide down in your seat of your stylish gas-guzzler, mortified to be seen behind the wheel.

Why is this fantasy? Because, unlike the car industry, no one is going to take out four-color multiple page ads to make you feel sexy on a Shimono. No one is going to produce a Super Bowl ad enticing you to "put the fun between your legs."

When it comes to breaking the cycle of wastefulness, you're pretty much on your own. And that's all right, because it's better to be motivated by a concern for the planet and a desire to "live simply so that others may simply live."

Still, whatever green thing you do, few take notice or care. Which makes me wonder how long-term environmental activists keep on. Have they grown accustomed to being lone voices of ecological sanity crying in the wilderness of affluenza?

I talked to Paul Glover, a Philadelphia-based community organizer whose carbon footprint could probably fit into the big toe of Al Gore's. He explained that though he has gotten around mostly by bicycle for decades, he resists the implication that his car-less lifestyle represents any kind of sacrifice.

"I'm pleased to be odd in this way, in a world where normal is destructive," he said. "It's so much more exciting and fun to pedal between home, work, and friends. Even in the rain, one feels immersed in the scene and terrain, rather than just buzzing past."

When I pressed him further, he confided, "I have been powerfully sustained by the beauty of children, whose futures depend on our courage to change. I guess I persevere in these directions because I believe that our children deserve a future as beautiful as they are."

With that, and a glance at my daughter, I felt a bit silly -- and selfish -- for caring whether or not anyone gives me kudos for going without a car.

Mark Klempner is the author of The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage.

Comments

[Detectiv]

"unless you live in that rare city with good public transportation" this should read "unless you live in that rare American city with good public transportation". Good public transport is not uncommon at all outside North America. When Americans and Canadians wake up and realize this, a lot of their energy challenges will shrink significantly.

[Virgil Kane]

Kudos to you for not owning a car. Do you think the government should subsidize people like you that don't own cars to encourage people to buy bikes and thus curb global warming? Seriously, if one person on every street traded in their cars for bikes, it would make a huge difference!

[Tanytarsini]

OK, here it is: Congratulations! I'll add a "mazel tov" and a "mabruk" to it, too! I hope you feel better.

And thank you for your low-carbon footprint. It's not easy, because there are days when I hate my own bike commutes (e.g., in winter during freezing rain or snow, during pouring rain and high wind, etc.). And there are days when I say "I ain't biking," and hitch a ride with my wife who drives.

[Mark Klempner - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, and thanks to "Virgil" too.

[jordan3189]

Start paying some taxes on all these bike paths and trails, then we'll compliment you.

[Mark Klempner - Huffpost Blogger]

FYI, I do pay taxes. And just to be generous, I'll pass up the subsidy that "Virgil" is dreaming up.

[ahuffreader]

It goes back to the 19th century, and Bicycle Built for Two. If you never learned that old song, Michael can't get Daisy to make out at the drive-in 'cause all he's got is a Schwinn. And that, Mr. Klempner, is the core of your problem.

[wdw505]

that is way to backward for me

[BobLablah]

Owning a Prius is NOT about being green. It's about having people THINK you're green.

[Atac]

Completely not true. I drive a Prius because of the high gas mileage. I also wanted to support an innovative technology. I love my car and have been driving it for almost six years. I don't drive it to impress anyone. I used to have people ask me about it when there were fewer hybrids on the road. They were naturally concerned with how it run. I honestly tell them that it doesn't accelerate the best (you know you aren't buying a sports car), but other than that I had zero issues with the car.

Now no one really cares as priuses are pretty common.

I like to see people drive efficient cars and do honestly look down on drivers when I see huge SUVs or Hummers driving by. But I don't expect everyone to run out and get a Prius, but to make smart choices that fit their budget.

[wdw505]

i like my suv..........when i can get a big car hybrid then maybe.......i will not drive a shoebox

[Pearlswan]

Totally agree with everything in this article. We need infrastructure for bicycle roadways separating them from the danger of fast-moving vehicles and their polluting exhaust that bicyclists are forced to breathe in "bike lanes," that amount to riding on the shoulder of the road, not in a separate and safe lane of its own. Such infrastructure improvements would be meaningful communication to bicyclists that our efforts do count and that they are valued in our communities. It would reward bicylists by making our journeys safer and less toxic--the only meaningful reward we seek because that's what gets people on the bike in the first place along with financial savings of over $6,000 per year from having no auto costs to bear.

[nwwanderer]

While I agree with the article, too, I think the idea of a separate infrastructure for cyclists is counterproductive in many ways. Bikes have a legal right to nearly all roads, but car-addicts are still fighting to push bikes off of them.

Creating a subsystem of "bike roads" separate from the existing infrastructure just gives the car-centric culture even more ammunition to try to ban bikes from more existing roads. I've never been a fan of "bike ghettos" with substandard paving, subroadbeds, meandering pedestrians, dogs, etc. Frankly, I feel safer on the street.

Then, of course, there's the expense and the difficulties of siting. Even as things are, many drivers feel that they literally "own" the road by virtue of paying gas taxes even though that's not currently true. How would you propose to pay for your cycling utopia? If it were to become a reality, that old, dead argument would start to have some real weight.