Saturday, August 25, 2012

BICYCLING FUTURE


What person in America wasn’t thrilled to get their first bike!  It was a highpoint of my life. It gave me freedom and distance and joy. Then, I grew up and got a car. It is interesting to watch China pull away from bicycles as a major mode of travel and opt for the auto while other countries are encouraging bicycling as a reasonable way to travel, and commute. People are tired of traffic gridlock. A bicyclist in cities like Portland, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Cleveland, etc.  can get to work faster on their bikes than a car or train. That’s something to think about.
Bicycles have been engineered to be an entirely different experience then the Schwinn from my childhood. Bicycles are made for speed, comfort and  great ease of  mobility in mind.  Essya Nabbali, one of the women who survived a severe  bike accident last year,  sent me an interesting email about two women who have invented an invisible bike helmet. Sound impossible? Click on the link below to a video about this marvelous invention. It is made like an automobile airbag. It instantly explodes open to protect the biker in an accident.
http://vimeo.com/43038579
It also helps to have municipalities plan cities, or  even retrofit cities to make bicycling more attractive with more than simple  bicycle lanes. How about a bicycle only freeway that can serve commuters?  Check out the following link to see Denmarks Bicycle Interstate. Then look for the 25 Jul 2012 issue at gas2.org. Fantastic.
http://gas2.org/
My daughter commuted for a couple of years on her bike. It made me nervous but with an interstate like Copenhagen’s, and bike friendly cities opening up to encouraging bike travel, things could change for all of us.  For the better, I might add. Its good exercise and fun.

Like us, RVers everywhere we go are seen with their bikes. Jim and I enjoyed biking the canals of Yuma in 2009.

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