by Ethan Johnson
August 21, 2008
Marlena and I were watching the seven-part miniseries about John Adams a few months ago, and I had a stupidly obvious realization: Lots got done before the advent of electricity. The pyramids were built, aqueducts made, castles constructed, iron forged, wars waged, and so on. I have been wanting to investigate when the notion that UFOs built the pyramids entered the collective consciousness. Off the cuff, I suspect it was after the advent of electricity. Because in these times, it seems that we are collectively convinced that no major undertaking is possible without automation (or other-worldly intervention). Pshaw.
I do find it amusing that in order to have progress, we must regress. Bicycles are a great example. I have stumbled upon a small sliver of cycling blogs. What few I have read deal largely with cycling as a means of commuting between locations, rather than for exercise or joyriding. (Note: This is why I have opted to address this topic here instead of the Health and Wellness section of this site.) I contend that cycling can indeed confer multiple benefits, including "eco" transportation and physical fitness. I already find myself weary of the various holy wars that seem to plague discussions of cycling, but I'll have more to say about that at another time. In short, if you want to ride a bike, do so.
I do believe that every action might trigger unintended consequences, and any major change requires acclimation and conditioning. Ironically, in the motorized age, I'm finding that the sort of conditioning and acclimation necessary to cope with spiraling energy prices and other concerns is regressive.
As a child and into my teens, I walked or biked everywhere, unless I was able to take a car or bus ride. I lived in the cooler north, but the summers still got hot. Plus I had the added bonus of having to walk in sub-zero temperatures. Short distances, usually, but still possible, unlike here in Texas.
Once I got a car, I was hooked. No more bike riding or walking for me! Even my job required driving. I worked as a delivery driver, then ultimately as a forklift operator. Walking became a drudgery. And why bike when you can drive?
I formulated a clever analogy today: Cars are the microwave ovens of personal transportation. Why wait for hours for something to cook when you can "nuke it"? Why bike for an hour to travel 12 miles when you can chew them up in under 10 by car? Even more amusing (to me), people (myself included, I admit it) drive to the health club to - wait for it - sit on an exercise bike. My excuse is that if I am not on the road by 8AM, it's too dangerously hot here by 11AM to be out in the full Sun. Even with sunblock. Plus we have been having torrential rains lately, which further screws up my biking. And finally, one of these days I'll be gainfully employed again, and won't necessarily be able to "just" hop on the bike and pedal around town in my leisure. I am happy to report that even with the rains, the pavement dries up quickly and I have been grinding out at least 30 minutes locally by bike in lieu of driving to the gym. So nyah.
Anyway, like anything else, bikes, cars, or microwave ovens are tools. Like any tool, they have a purpose and a time to be used. But tools can be overused. The fancier the tool, the more likely we will want to use it often. Perhaps this is the justification for $10,000 bicycles. I have a minivan, and yes, it beats walking or biking in terms of convenience. But that convenience comes at a cost. Do I really need to fire up the minivan to run a corner errand? Some days, sure, although I prefer to "trip-chain" and run multiple errands rather than burn gas so trivially.
Over the past few months, and especially these recent weeks, I have been conditioning myself to take longer treks on the bike. Texas is huge, and not entirely practical to traverse on two manually operated wheels. I figure if I can do a 12 mile round trip in under an hour, that's practical enough.
I mention all of this because as gas prices rise and other costs rise with them, more people are at least expressing an interest in biking as an alternative to driving (or walking). Speaking for Plano Texas, this city isn't built on the premise that its residents will walk or bike in large numbers. We have bike paths, but they are primarily recreational, and not necessarily practical if you're planning to use them to run local errands. The paths closest to home follow the power lines, which are relegated to desolate patches of nothing relative to the main streets where the businesses reside. These paths are excellent for recreational use, and certainly reduce concerns about coexisting with motor vehicle traffic, but sooner or later, the main streets must be confronted. And as such, concerns are raised that the streets and/or motorists are not equipped to deal with bike traffic. Which means that a regressive element must be factored in to city planning: Bike and foot traffic, which was rendered obsolete by the car. Which is why sidewalks are often an afterthought in areas of new construction locally. Seriously - sidewalks end for large stretches of road only to reappear when someone thought to add them to the design plan.
While I believe it is too much to hope for in the short term that cities and towns will redesign its roadways with pedestrians and cyclists in mind, in larger numbers, this situation speaks to the larger issues raised by so-called alternative energy. As our habits and needs/wants change, our surroundings will over time to accommodate them. The highway system wasn't built the day after the first automobile was. But the need for one was created on that fateful day. Consider it an unintended consequence.
Talk of doing things the "old fashioned way" can lead to groans about how long and arduous every undertaking was back then, before the advent of [whatever], but we must remember that stuff got done. Slowly, sure. But if more people revert to the slow, manual way of doing things more often, we might reap the benefits that were lost or lessened when our lives sped up. But we have to condition and acclimate ourselves to that reality. It won't happen overnight. <EM>
(More articles like this one may be found here.)
