Getting into Evangelista mode for bicycling

For some time now, I've been inching toward a rebirth of sorts. I've been reading about Peak Oil
and "The Long Emergency" foretold by Mr. Kunstler. I've found numerous links and articles on the impending collision of socio-economic factors that appears to be the inevitable end of our current era, which was hastened by or created by our own opulence and selfishness with which we have used over half of the total volume of fossil-based crude. If you subscribe to this view, we are heading for a much darker age, where the cars and trucks stop running for lack of available fuel, the potential power generation is markedly diminished, and the ability to move products from far-away places to your neighborhood will be largely a memory. Seems kinda glum. So my new tack is toward a human-powered mobility, and helping others to become more able to travel using human power. Specifically, bicycles, and their evolutionary family, will be key to the next generation of Americans. So why not start in my own town, High Point, NC.

Last night, a small group of cyclists watched a movie called "Contested Streets," presented by the DOT that illustrated some history of how our larger cities turned into the car-dominated mammoths that they are today. Note that I chose Mammoth as a descriptor, because they are extinct now. The last half of the movie showed several cities in Europe where the automobile has been stripped of its supreme ownership of the land. Streets have been modified, cars have been banned in certain areas, and light rail and bus systems have been improved to the point that cars are no longer the mode of choice for moving about in these cities. That's what I'd like to see happen in my town.

To that end, I'm hoping to provide some links and text here that will get folks to start thinking of ways to park their car, and use their bicycles more. Not the kind of riding like you see on the weekends when a long line, or peloton, of cyclists rides for miles and miles through the countryside and city streets burning up the calories and checking HeartRate Monitors for aerobic levels. I'm talking about utility cycling, cycling for the usefulness of getting around. Using the bicycle as a mode of transportation more than a piece of exercise equipment is what it's all about.

I'll leave you with this website so that you can think about how useful a bike can be, if it was safe to ride it to places you need to go. The Powerpoint presentation is really enlightening.