If You Ride a Bike, It's Gotta Be Because You’re Either Poor, a Drunk or Just Plain Weird.
Here's an interesting commentary by a guy named Alan Durning from Grist Magazine, a collection of environment news and commentary based in Seattle. He writes about the perception that people who ride bikes for transportation (as opposed to recreation) do so because they have no other choice.
"To be a successful adult, apparently, you have to drive," writes Durning, citing the jokes in The Forty-Year-Old Virgin made at the expense of the main character, a cyclist, as just one example of society's bias. "Cycling is for children; cycling is for losers. In this view, it's fitting that the pinnacle of the sport of cycling is the Tour de France. (Implied snicker about France as a symbol -- unfair, of course -- of all that's cowardly, effeminate, and weak.)"
To counter these assumptions, Durning analyzed the statistics of commuter household income from the Seattle metropolitan area, broken down by means of daily commute:
Means of Transportation to Work with Median Household Income, 1999
Ferry $71,050
Work at home $69,000
Car, truck, or van $66,920
Motorcycle $65,500
All commuters $65,000
Bicycle $61,000
Bus $52,200
Walk $34,000
(Source: Puget Sound Regional Council)
What these figures show, in Durning's assessment, is that bike commuters are neither rolling in luxury, nor suffering in abject poverty. It's an interesting read, and I especially agree with his final assessment:
"Biking is the least exclusive form of vehicular transportation there is. It's not restricted to people with money, or people with drivers' licenses and insurance . . . . Cycling -- like walking -- is democratic: it's equally available to all (or all but a very small share of the population)."
So, says Durning, "Is cycling for children, for losers, for intellectuals? Yes. It's for them, because it's for everyone." And it's for us too.
By the way, have you ever had anyone figure that you have to ride a bike for transportation because you've lost your driver's license? The other day someone yelled "Try AA!" at me while I was going down the street. Har har. The implication here is that I should go to Alcoholics Anonymous to help curb some problem with alcohol that must have cost me my license. Like I said, har har.
- Read the complete commentary here
- Comment below
Image: Steve Carrell, The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, Universal Pictures
Comments
Yes Sir…I B POOR … I Bike, I Bus and I walk to work and back as often as 7 days a week (every other week) The week I have off, I rent a car and see the country … Oh Yes…with my bike, walking shoes, and a return ticket on the Greyhound (an of course change to put my bike on the front of the city bus incase it is raining when I need to get back home). What a great life. Less than $20,000 a year income and 4 modes of transportation to anywhere I wanna go. AND, Three of um are FREE.
MrPete
I;’m all for people riding their bikes for transit, or exercise, or sightseeing, or anything else that makes them happy (and fit), but NOT ON THE NARROWEST, MOST HEAVILY TRAFFICKED, ONE-LANE ROAD THEY CAN FIND THAT DOES NOT HAVE A WALKING OR BIKE LANE. There’s nothing like a morning commute behind the bike that’s holding up three miles of traffic on the only north-west route on the side of town that you need to travel.
Yes, it’s probably time for the town to both widen the roads and create the walk/bike lanes, but who’s going to pay the costs? It’s a double-edged sword, so we all need to be considerate.
Bikers need to protect their safety by utilizing more appropriate routes, and drivers need to be careful when the traffic backs up.
Re: Ellen’s comment - if as you say, the route is “the only north-west route on the side of town that you need to travel.” Then how else are those bike riders supposed to get to the same destination? I agree that bike lanes are ideal, but as you also pointed out, they are not always available. I am pretty sure, not 100%, but pretty sure that most people would not CHOOSE a dangerous situation if they did not HAVE to. Just a thought.