My 6th grade teacher had some words of wisdom: "your first guess is usually right". One bicycle dealer--builder-- instructor advertised that "bicycling is not recreation--its transportation". Unfortunately --his customers took their business elsewhere. My first guess is that the USA needs to permanently commit itself to man-powered transportation (in conjunction with reversing inflation--half a century). Why did President Nixon visit China in 1972 ? JFK's 1st guess--in conjunction with oil production reaching its peak in the lower 48 states in 1963--was to start The President's Council on Physical Fitness. We have bought oil from the Middle East. We have built the Alaskan Pipeline. We have started Ethanol production--which has--over the 2010-2020 decade--gone as vertical as the "free" trade DOW Index and Gross "National" Product. We have started electric cars--with non-recyclable batteries--amounting to mega poison. All of these--over the long haul --are too close to exercises in futility.
Whist I'm riding my trike to and from work--in the middle of 1000's of cars and trucks--if people can read each other's minds--it seems to me that nearly ALL of these motorists are THINKING they should be DOING what I'm DOING.
National Bicycle to Work Day ... Once a Year ? Do many of us THINK we should commit ourselves to ONE DAY PER WEEK ? Then 2 days--Then 3-4-5-6-7 ? There are some real problems with this with more than HALF of America--they are as follows: I live in a well-connected sub urban town. It has Industry, Business, Finance, Investment, Colleges, Passenger & Freight Rail Connections, Highways and an Airport. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia each have only as many bicycle shops as my home county. In Rural America--towns are not 5 miles apart--they're 50 miles apart. In our cities--Bicycling is not possible on most streets, highways and bridges. You can't take a bicycle on most transit and commuter trains.It would be great if every bicycle CLUB in America would start by purchasing and deploying at least several $5000 pickup TRIKES.
Could many of us get the $5000 Tool Kits and learn the mechanics of these TRIKES ?
Could we even learn to build them from scratch--doing our welding with off-grid (micro-grid / stand-alone SOLAR POWER) where HALF of the power isn't consumed by our 50% efficient long-distance grid ?
These new 3-foot laws are absolutely necessary .... People who bicycle in smaller groups or alone ARE MUCH BETTER AWARE of this--THE PEOPLE OF COLOR ARE ESPECIALLY WELL AWARE--I HAVE NUMEROUS FRIENDS WHO REPORT NOT ONLY BEING HARASSED BY MOTORISTS EVERY DAY --BUT EVEN HAVING THEIR LIVES THREATENED--VERY OFTEN--AS IN A 1/4" CLOSE SHAVE AT 60 TO 80 MPH. They even see their lives threatened as many times per day as us white boys and girls see per lifetime. Workers' Cooperative Depot Streets Solar Light Rail World
This "Joe Cool" LOOKS like he's going
someplace game--it was a painful experience to get over my addiction to
automobiles--but I finally did.
