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02.04.09
Kill Your Car
New cycling commuter Dan Hinds tells how he
made the switch from his car to his bike — and how you can do it too.
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(Andrew Martin Photo)
BIKING INSTEAD OF
DRIVING WAS NEVER something I considered until the day I started doing
it. With gas prices rising steadily throughout last summer and a couple
of speeding tickets pushing my insurance payments up, the day I started
biking was the day I couldn't afford to start the car.
I've always been a
big fan of biking, but between working fulltime and going to college,
most of my outdoor leisure of late has been devoted to sports that were
a little more beer friendly — like towing a cooler behind a kayak.
Nevertheless, my bike was still in pretty good shape when I pulled it
out of the garage. It had a thin layer of dust and a thicker one of mud
from the last big downhill I had done, but it cleaned up easy and all
the gears switched fine.
The second I pulled
into the street I wondered why I hadn't started biking sooner. From
where I live in Framingham, Massachusetts, getting anywhere takes at
least ten minutes by car because of the endless red lights and perpetual
bumper to bumper traffic along the main route. It didn't affect me that
day. Any city cyclist knows that great feeling of blasting through
traffic, weaving around the cars that sit hot and still in burning sun.
The day after that
first ride I woke up sore all over and it took me an hour or two before
I realized that in my five miles the day before I had awoken muscles
long dormant. It was even worse the next day, but then it started to
fade. In under a week, the ride to school and back didn't bother me at
all and I had started scouting for some good off-road shortcuts. Pulling
up to college as one of the only bikers made me self conscious at first,
but once you realize no one cares, you don't either.
Within just a month
of riding my bike, I had already lost fat, gained muscle, and saved a
few hundred dollars in gas. I was getting around the crowded city easily
and also could feel good about myself for being green in the process.
For me going to biking was easier than it would be for a lot of people,
though. The city where I live is pretty dense, and I live in the center.
Nothing is more than five miles away and pretty much every necessity is
within a mile. For people who live in more sprawling cities, or work out
of town, biking alone would be much more challenging.
It's been easy for
me, but I owe that to the bike advocacy organization
MassBike, or the
Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. They've been working for years to make
Boston and the rest of the state bike friendly. It was largely through
their efforts that the MBTA began allowing bikes on the T’s and commuter
rails with no special pass required. Additionally, the MBTA also agreed
to put bike racks on public buses as a concession to the ever increasing
amount of people commuting through a mix of biking and mass transit.
Similar work is being
done throughout New England. The
New Hampshire Bike Walk Alliance is
active all over the state promoting events and designating safe trails
for non-drivers all over. In Maine, the
Bicycle Coalition is an
extremely large and still growing group of bikers fighting for biker
rights. They've influenced the laws in their state to make it safer for
bikes to share the road.
All these
organizations have great advice for a commuter just starting out.
Beginners will obviously need to go out and get a decent bike. You don't
need to drop and serious money to get something road-worthy, though. Hit
up the local thrift stores for old-fashioned street bikes and you'll be
surprised at the quality. Tires are the key thing to look for. If your
commute is entirely city streets, then you're better off with a nice
smooth tire. If you're off-roading a decent amount, get something with
some treads to it.
Safety is the other
thing all these organizations stress for bikers. Be prepared to be
caught out in the dark, even if you don't plan on leaving late. Usually
they advise buying blinking battery powered lights or reflective vests,
but for anyone who doesn't want to look like a dork, on-bike reflectors
will do the trick nearly as well.
There are some
problems with biking, especially in high-crime areas. No matter where
you ride, when you get there you need to lock your bike up or run the
risk of it getting stolen. Framingham is never going to win the safest
city award, so I was especially cautious. I started out with a
rubber-coated Wal-Mart special for $10. My roommate had the same one and
we'd lock our bikes behind the house at night, well off the main road
and invisible from the street. Still, the first night my roommate didn't
bother to lock his up, it was gone. From then on I've kept mine inside
the house and bought a chain and padlock for locking it in the street,
which might not be any more secure, but is a heck of a lot more
comforting to look at.
Over the months, I've
seen more and more bikes on the streets. I'm sure I'm not the only one
driven to it because of finances, but there are also a lot of people who
do it for other reasons. Obviously a big concern in today’s world is the
health of the environment. Emissions from cars are a large contributor
to global warming and smog in general, so people are going green with
hybrids and bikes. Also, people are looking to get healthier. Riding a
bike instead of sitting in traffic is exercise that is easily backed up
by saving money and the environment.
In the end, I'd
recommend riding a bike instead of driving to pretty much everyone. Even
if you only do it one day a week, you're saving gas, the environment,
and your body. It seems a little ridiculous to start, but as soon as you
crest your first big hill and coast all the way down, you'll wonder why
you ever stopped.
For a complete listing of cycling
resources,
visit our
bike links page.
Dan Hinds is a student at
Framingham State College in Massachusetts. Besides biking, he enjoys
hiking and kayaking. |
