From the Edmonton Journal, 04.17.07:
Getting on my bicycle always confirms spring is hereThis is an interesting first-person account from a Canadian journalist. This column provides a helpful reminder of why we choose to bicycle for transportation. We may bike commute for lots of reasons--to save money, to get fit, to save the environment. But for many of us, it's about the fun.
Robins and crocusses are all well and good. But I know spring has arrived the first time I ride my bike to work.
I could tell you I ride my bike because I'm concerned about greenhouse gas emissions. Or about my health.
Those would be the fashionable, politically correct responses.
But in fact, I ride for the most selfish and sybaritic of reasons.
It makes me happy.
I come into work, flushed with enthusiasm and righteousness...I arrive home both refreshed and relaxed, the stresses of the offices, the disturbing news tragedies of the day, shed somewhere along 103rd Avenue.
There's a connection to the city that you just don't get when you drive. You see things and people, quite literally, from a different angle. I don't bike because it's good for me. I bike because it makes me feel good.
(Read more.)
Image: Web capture. Bike parked near transit stop in Edmonton.
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips
2 comments:
I don't think there's anything unfashionable or or un-PC about riding for fun.
Quite the contrary. I think that riding for fun (with the great side effcts of good health and less greenhouse gasses)is the most fashionable thing you could do!
On my ride in the other day I was thinking to myself about how I would never go out of my way to put extra miles on my commute if I was driving. It has been so beautiful out the last week that I've just had to take an extra 3 miles on the bike path before going into the office.
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