Cars Are Like Cigarettes; The New Pariah

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.

Comments

[DanteLabon]

Very true. I am tired of the bull from the car companies in the US as well. Toyota and the other foreign co's that are doing well DESERVE it!! The US has had the same amount of time as they did to build cars that PEOPLE WANT, and they did not. Look up DIY electric car or motorcycle on the internet, and you'll see people building them in their GARAGE and getting 50 of 60 miles to the charge...D­ON'T tell me that the US auto makers couldn't do that!! It's all about the payoff from the d a m n e d oil companies and (by extension.­.Congress)­. Sorry but it's true...loo­k up EV1. Ask why THAT wasn't built and released to the public a DECADE ago. And the one's build were taken away in the middle of the night and CRUSHED...­and the one's in museums were DISABLED at the order from GM.

[mikefina]

People want trucks and SUV's. You may condemn them for it, but quit listening to your own narrative. Look at auto-sales figures. SUV's sold--right up to $4/gal gasoline--then they tanked.

If you want people to drive those ugly little 4-bangers, fine. Impose a floor on gasoline prices (say, $4/gal) and let demand drive auto-design and production. Oh, and don't let those a-holios in Congress touch the tax proceeds. Require all revenues to be applied to the deficit.

[Candice Tucker]

I only wish I could give up my car for a bike or a Metro. Unfortunately, I live in Houston. We might be the nation's fourth largest economy, but we are backwards in so many respects..­.including mass transit. I just moved here from Austin, which I miss dearly for many reasons, including the collective eco-consciousness. Obviously Austin is bike-frien­dly...Lanc­e Armstrong anyone?

I've heard great things about Portland as well.

[lbjranch]

I guess it was just a matter of time before we descended to the depths of comparing automobiles with cigarettes. I don't have anything against bikes, but to extoll their virtues over the auto is asinine and inert.
I loved my bike when I was a kid. Then I grew up and bought a car. Because a car enables me to get things done faster and safer than on a bike. The car is a superior form of transportation. More freedom, more time, more opportunity. (What am I going to do, limit my employment options to a 5 mile radius?)

Stop demonizing the automobile.

[DanteLabon]

Not demonizing the automobile, demonizing the FUEL.

[decaf]

Exactly! The fuel. Not the four wheels.

There used to be leaded gas. Why was it forced to be removed? Because it caused brain damage, deformed fetuses and was carnage to our rivers, lakes and streams. Many people are car manufactures complained when environmentalist and physicians asked for the lead in gasoline to be removed (NASCAR still allows lead in their cars).

Modine suggests an alternative.

[Themosdenes]

Because you can accomplish your personal tasks faster and easier with a car does not cancel out the fact that cars are a problem. Sometimes we must look at the bigger picture and weigh our personal convenience against the consequences of maintaining an automobile­-dominated society. This does not mean we should completely eliminate cars, or that absolutely everyone must make the effort to reduce their driving. But it is a responsible thing to do to consider the dangers cars pose and how we each can alter our daily activities to mitigate these problems.

[jitsusoji]

Excellent post. I never thought about bicycling much until I started traveling to China on a regular basis. This is where I regained my passion for bicycling. I only wish that Dallas had dedicated bicycle lanes like Beijing and Tianjin.

[LMPE]

My Portland is quite possibly the most bike-friendly city in the country.

[decaf]

All hail Portland. A leader in transportation alternatives.

[KenTao]

I'll see you soon. I'm moving there, goddess willing, in the next few months. From what I gather and folks tell me, I'll fit right in.

Earthlings Unite!

[gifu]

Most of the food you eat still requires the gas and roads you are cursing. I know "farmer market" farmers who still drive 7 hours to market in from N.Eastern WA. to Seattle (one way) each week of the spring, summer, and fall to supply your "local" produce. My local friend's fuel bill for his tractors that aid in producing organic grain, alfalfa, etc. for food and feeding the 2 dozen cows for his organic milk creamery is almost $10,000/ month.....­.....Your urban fantasy is just that. My neighbor just moved to our small town from Portland and is still pissy that people do not ride their bikes more, yet she drives back to Portland and Seattle 2 or 3 times a month because there is not enough to do in our lil' town of under 1000 people. Whatever..­..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­....?

[WebHubbleTelescope]

So let us save the precious energy for food then. Natural gas is used heavily in the production of fertilizers, yet we also use it to superheat oil sands to tap off the liquid .. so that we can use that for gas.

[Themosdenes]

Dead on. That this trailblazing commentary makes it to this newspaper is a source of hope, an encouragement that the ideas that will save us are catching on.

What it doesn't mention but must be added are the additional negatives of cars. The danger, the many deaths every year; rather, the automobile accidents that occur every minute. The miles and countless miles of pavement layered across the ground, covering our Earth and its natural beauty, blighting our landscape, turning our living places into criss-crossed mazes of roads and bridges, devouring our space.

The car must go.

[byla]

I live in a town where bicycles are the norm. Most if not all have large baskets on the front or back to carry several bags of whatever they need to get. Even many of our homeless people have bikes. For those who aren't biking, they walk, rollerblade or skateboard.

Unfortunately, most communities aren't set up for bicyclers. Where I used to live it would have been practically impossible as there were long stretches of city streets with 55 mph speed limits and no room for a bike lane.

[SusanRen]

Come to the southwest in july or august and bicycle in the afternoon when its 100 degrees plus. You will wish you had a car. when I was younger I bicycled everyday to work winter and summer. By the time I got home I was too worn out from the heat to enjoy the rest of my day.

[phlashba]

People were not meant to live in the desert.

[jaundicedview]

The Bedouin of North Africa and the tribes of the Trans-Pecos might beg to differ.

[DanteLabon]

Well, just go pick up a FINE foreign car that runs on Electric, or Hydrogen, Propane or Biodiesel.­...oh...wa­it.. sorry, the american infrastructure doesn't allow for that. Bummer.
Excuses are like a@&holes..­.everybody­'s got one, and they are usually full of...you know. We have been spoiled to GASOLINE as the ONLY fuel source because the "MONEY" want's it that way.

[LB14]

"American infrastructure"? Have you ever been to the US?

The US has thousands of miles of open spaces, much more than Europe. It would be IMPOSSIBLE to have the "infrastructure" in the United States that they have in Europe, which is obviously smaller and more DENSELY POPULATED.

[decaf]

While you're there, you'll no doubt be sitting in unnaturally cooled homes, stores and office buildings. Air conditioning is the next pariah. If you can't stand the heat, better get out of the desert.

[RetireGreen]

Here's a financial reason to give up your car and bicycle instead, if you invest the savings, after 20 years you will have an additional $375,000 and be able to retire with $180,000 less in savings.

http://www.iplanretirement.com/retiregreen.html

Try the Green Calculator and find out how going green benefits you financially.

[LB14]

yea right, I can just bicycle to work everyday, which takes an hour by car

not to mention the towing that I have to do at times. I'll just quit my job so I can be "green"

[LB14]

I like Bikes too, but it's pretty difficult when I have to commute an hour to work and tow a trailer at times