Hard to be crabby on a bicycle

From the La Crosse Tribune (Wisconsin), 05.10.08:

Commuting bikers discover the freedom of two wheels
The American dream is intimately rooted to having a car, Eric Wheeler said this week, his bicycle locked up outside a coffee shop.

The car has made the suburbs possible. Culturally, it’s connected to our ideas of freedom (we can go from coast to coast in a car), individualism (by ourselves) and the open road (with our music blaring). And so maybe bicycling will never be part of daily life here as it is in China or the Netherlands.

Even Wheeler, who said he cycles 2,500 miles a year, drives. But he also cycles. And while his reasons for doing so include health and a concern for the environment, his main reason perhaps is to get a better idea about what could motivate others to ride on two wheels. “The bottom line is I enjoy it,” Wheeler said. “I’m not doing this to be righteous or crusading.”

Karolanne Hoffman, who generally cycles to her job at Dairyland Power once or twice a week, said she feels more a part of the community on her bicycle than in her car. “You can get crabby when you’re in traffic and when you get to work, you still have that bad feeling,” said Hoffman, one of the organizers of Bike to Work Week. “It’s really hard to be crabby on a bicycle.” (Read more.)

Report from Wisconsin on bicycling promotion in small-town America, in this case the successful Coulee Bike to Work Week. I just enjoyed the quote. I'm a bike commuter who isn't ready to concede the automotive fiction of cars as tools of freedom, independence and adventure.

Image: Web capture.
Visit: Zen and the Art of Bike Commuting, Bike Commute Tips Blog
Visit: Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips Site
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