I am often asked, "Why do you love bicycles?" For a few reasons, but mostly because I am in love with self-propulsion and self-motivation. I love finding solutions to problems and I want to leave the world in better condition than when I arrived. For too long we've behaved as if the resources of our world are infinite. They are not. They are finite. The disappearing species around the globe should be a canary in the coal mine for all of us.
Have you ever been witness to a baby's first steps? The open mouth smile and the parents, with arms outstretched, as the child wobbles into their waiting arms. With each step the child builds confidence and ventures further out into the world. I don't remember my first steps, but I remember the first time I found my balance and pedaled away from my father as he let go of the seat of my first bike. I remember. My heart seemed to stop and I gasped for breath. Balance. More than just a word, a metaphor.
The bicycle provides a greater sense of self-propulsion because it can carry us further and faster than our feet. At some point during the mid 19th century, during the height of the industrial revolution, the love of two-wheeled transportation began to catch hold in different corners of the world. Since that time there have been countless shapes and forms. But each design provides the rider with the same freedom that the first model gave its operator, the ability to get from one place to another quickly and in style.
Sometimes I feel like I am flying when I ride my bike. It's exciting to turn a corner and suddenly find myself in a sea of other bicyclists. They seem to share this feeling of self-empowerment. In love with the knowledge that, as they pass through the air that surrounds them, they are not polluting what we all share and breathe. Bicyclists are free from the petroleum products that have compromised our global environment. They don't have to worry about paying for parking, tipping valets, car insurance, car inspections or car maintenance. And this makes them smile. And, as an added bonus, bicyclists are less tense than the people belted into their metal, four-wheeled boxes.
The statistical truth is that 90% of trips made in cars are less than five miles from our homes. A very comfortable journey made on a bicycle. In addition to saving the aforementioned automobile expenses, riding a bike--just a couple hours a week--will reduce a person's risk of heart attack and stroke by 50%, not to mention reduce the risks of obesity and diabetes, two of the biggest killers in the United States. The more people that ride bikes, the safer it gets to share the road with pedestrians and cars.
Perhaps the best part of choosing a bike instead of a car is what you are saying by pedaling. You are saying to yourself, your friends, your family, and the cars that clog our roads and highways, that you care about the air we breathe and that you care about the environment. You're saying you want to do something to reduce carbon emissions and that you want to improve your health. This personal and environmental awareness is the legacy that you want to share with your friends and family. You are a person that wants to pose beside your new bicycle instead of a new car. Not to mention how much fun it is to ride. The Zen of bicycling is way cooler than the art of motorcycle maintenance.
Our country has had a long love affair with the automobile. Since its invention, the automobile has provided us with the freedom and liberty we yearned for since we took those first baby steps. The automobile took us further and faster than we could have ever done by self-propulsion. But that speed and distance has brought the world to the edge of extinction. We must now look at the automobile with an understanding of what it really is. We must look at the movies and songs that celebrated the automobile with a new consciousness and awareness. We must look at the automobile as a cigarette--a cancer stick--a nail in our collective coffin. The sexy lifestyle that the tobacco industry sold to us contains the same advertising lies and poison which the automobile industry sold and continues to sell to the world. Look at the ads for automobiles and you'll begin to recognize the lies. You'll see open roads with happy smiling drivers. Ask yourself, When was the last time I was NOT stuck in traffic? When was the last time I was not pissed off and stressed out after just a few hours spent driving behind the wheel of a car? The automobile ads always present cars in a setting that is free of traffic and the drivers appear powerful, happy and liberated behind the wheel. Yeah, like that ever happens in the modern world.
Just as tobacco has killed millions with different forms of cancer, the automobile industry and the pollution that has spewed from exhaust pipes ever since Henry Ford's Model 'A' rolled off the assembly line, must be looked upon as a carton of cigarettes and a cancer to civilization. The automobile industry should not be bailed out so it can continue to manufacture the same product. The automobile industry should be transformed into an industry that builds non-combustion engines. They should be given contracts to build new light rail trains that can carry passengers comfortably and safely. And the light rail cars should have bike racks so passengers can get home from commutes too long to be made by bicycle. Imagine how many jobs could be created if the US supported light and heavy rail systems. The car is a mode of transportation that cannot propel itself or our country into the future. The burning of fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine is dead. Raise your glass to self-propulsion! Long live the bicycle.
Matthew Modine is a Causecast leader, a dedicated and passionate individual who is an enigmatic voice for change. Causecast leaders are a prestigious collection of athletes, artists, students, actors, musicians, politicians, teachers and more. These individuals have set themselves apart from their contemporaries with a spirited dedication to their ideals.
He is also the founder of Bicycle for a Day, an organization which encourages expanded bicycle use and environmental empowerment. On June 4th, BFAD is holding a fundraiser for SOLAR ONE, a New York based clean energy organization.
Loading comments… 
If you have to begin with slanted terms, like cigarettes and pariah, are you not admitting that bicycles are lost in a fair competitio
Why not just say, for great transporta
For me, I decided to ride a bike again, after getting my driver's license and driving for a while. But when I went out the first time again on my bike, I was in the middle of the intersecti
And for people who can't ride bikes for all sorts of physical reasons, to call them names like cigarette smokers, and pariahs... is insensitiv
modine says he wants to eliminate the internal (infernal) combustion engine. not the car.
Gasoline powered cars ARE like cigarettes
At night be aware that a flashing light on your bike can grab the attention of a drunk driver and make him run right into you. Sounds strange but it happens. Once you are aware of the dangers, bicycling is a wonderful, clean way to get around.
What is the point of pointing the finger at China LB14? Does it solve the pollution problem? Does it save the more than 300,000 lives that are estimated being lost as a result of rising waters caused by global warming? Please think before you point the finger. Please look in the mirror and ask yourself what you are personally doing to contribute to positive solutions. Modine's post is pointing toward a positive solution.
Cars are not the environmen
Moreover, Modine implies that reducing the number of cars and increasing mass transit would result in a lot of new employment
I wouldn't oppose zoning to make mass transit, walking, and cycling make sense for more people, but it would take 100 years of what probably at least half of Americans would view as draconian zoning to move this in a major way.
This kind of article probably turns some people off to environmen
Modine is saying to transform the auto industry. If it did transform, the number of people that would be employed by creating light rail would be off the hook. He says to transform the automobile system from building cars to light rail trains. That would keep all the current, and more autoworker
Alan@EcoVe
http://www
and in mississipp
I know a woman who cycled across Canada for her 64th birthday so don't go telling me that a 60 year old can't cycle to the store.
As for the heat in Mississipp
The gentleman also missed the point in Modine's post concerning alternativ
All this said, it makes sense that certain 60 year olds don't want to give up their V8 motor cars. And that's why Modine says "cars are like cigarettes
This article is plainly extremist.
How about building cars that do not damage the environmen
What about that?
When we first moved down here 10 yrs ago I would either walk or ride my bike the 3/4 of a mile to the nearest grocery store. It seemed silly to drive that short a distance. I would have neighbors stop and ask me if I needed a ride! People just don't get it. I think the real problem is that cars have become such a HUGE status symbols--e
if we do this jerrymerry
One thing though, the automobile companies can't even compete in the automobile industry. To expect they could somehow transform themselves to become competitiv
But let's not get into demonizing people who don't make that choice. The automobile flourished in this country because of the personal freedom it delivered. Want to visit grandma 120 miles away tomorrow afternoon? You can. Want to see Yellowston
So let's not demonize people who make a different *choice* that works for them, even if it's not the choice we would make. Nothing is more offensive to me than a fundamenta
"The automobile industry should be transforme
Modine doesn't ask for the end of the car, but for a new TYPE of transporta
Don't be a victim. BE the CHANGE you want to see in the world.