The last post concerning the Bike Snob's new book led me to think of a day a while back. I was speaking to a class of high school students on another subject and one of them mentioned that he had seen me ride my bike to school that day. He was understandably curious because I was there to talk about how liberal arts education related to business careers. I, dressed in slacks and a casual blazer looked less like a cyclist than he did, and Byron
certainly didn't look like the bike his father bought to decorate the garage at home.
His curiosity was off topic, but understandable, so I asked the class in general to tell me how many reasons they could think of that would justify riding a bike rather than drive a car.
Their reasons were pretty predictable:
Save Money,
Car's in the shop,
Can't afford a car,
Wife has the car,
Driver's License suspended,
Reduce gas usage,
Reduce emissions,
improve environment,
loose weight,
get some exercise
...
There was quite a list and all of the reasons were some variation of the three themes,
money, environment and exercise.
I told them those were all good reasons, but not mine.
They looked at the list on the board, whispered among themselves, shook their heads and looked puzzled.
I finally said:
"FUN"
I like doing it!
Well that was it, I was staring at a herd of deer struck with a spotlight.
Just like the average cyclist having a list of reasons for not commuting by bike,
the non-cyclist would have to justify it through self-sacrifice or hardship.
I don't understand how we got here, but it seems to be the way people are wired.
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