Today Show: Bike Use Soars With Gas Prices

It's Chris

From: tkeats2005@hotmail.com (Tom*Keats)

Actually, the 70s gave a lot of folks in Vancouver the kickstart they
needed to take up practical cycling. Yes, some fell by the wayside. In
fact that's how I accumulated my fleet of Apollos -- people bought 'em,
decided they didn't like riding, and gave/traded/sold 'em cheaply to me.

But many of my fellow citizens carried on, and continue to this day to
ride both recreationally and practically. I daresay we have a thriving
bicycling culture here which is due in large part to the Energy Crisis.
Even more so in Victoria, B.C.
The seventies' so-called Energy Crisis was just a temporary glitch. I
sense we're now on the brink of something much more serious.

Biofuel to the rescue! * * (... maybe.)
Maybe biofuel could be made edible, or at least potable. It could be
advertised as "Good For Man or Machine or Beast." I could make good use
of a decent fractionating column, myself. Not for vehicle operation,
though.

I've noticed lately how publicly-available bike racks are getting a lot
more use. We need more of 'em. Sheltered bike parking areas would be
nice.

At any rate, I figure a lot of people are gonna learn the hard way, the
difference between "/can't/ adapt" and "don't wanna adapt."

cheers,
********Tom
- - - - - - - - - - - -

You're from Canada? you don't count then. My statement was in referance
to us slothful Americans :-3D

- -
Compliments of:
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

If you want to E-mail me use:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

My website:
http://geocities.com/czcorner

SMS

It's Chris wrote:

> Maybe biofuel could be made edible, or at least potable.

I have a friend with a converted diesel Mercedes that can run on
bio-fuel, but that also runs on pure vegetable oil (you must start and
stop the engine while it's getting fuel from the bio-fuel tank, but once
the engine is running it can be switched to the plain vegetable oil tank).

Cathy Kearns

"Tom Keats" <tkeats2005@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:423r1g.qa.ln@vcn.bc.ca...
> Hear, hear!
>
> And I figure the best way of delivering the message that
> Practical Bicycling can indeed be viable is by, well,
> simply doing it -- by simply being an example to others.
>
> I think it helps to dress in normal workaday clothes
> which look nice but are also cycling-friendly.

Tom's right. I hop on my town bike with the fenders and the chain guard and
the step through frame in my white skirt and sandals and pedal off to join
friends downtown for lunch. And sure enough, I glide right up to the
restaurant and snap down the kick stand, pull the key out of the ring lock
and take my purse out of the basket and am ready to go, while they tell me
how much trouble they had finding parking. Heck, turns out that we left at
the same time to go the same distance, but I saved all that time parking.
We don't even have to get into the cost of gas discussion before they want a
bike just like mine, down to the bell.

SMS

Tom Keats wrote:

> My only beef is that with our local MHL, I fear helmets
> portray cycling as dangerous, and scares incipient riders
> off.

Helmet laws can have the opposite effect as well.

In my area, which is heavily Asian, there is an unexpectedly large
number of school-age kids riding to school. The schools thought,
apparently, that the parents would be too overprotective to allow their
kids to ride to school, but the helmet requirement helps to give the
parents a false sense of security, for better or for worse. The kids
ride horribly, on the wrong side of the road, on the sidewalk, darting
out from between parked cars, running stop signs and red lights, but the
parents are seemingly unconcerned because the kids wear helmets.

I think you're falling for the fallacies promoted by the AHZs, by
stating that widespread helmet usage makes others thinks that cycling is
more dangerous than it actually is.

Seat belt laws don't portray driving as more dangerous than it actually
is. No one believes that seat belts will save your life in a really bad
accident, yet everyone accepts that wearing them can reduce injuries in
some situations, even if they don't like wearing them.