People who ride bikes coming of age and becoming drivers

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

Or rather, becoming drivers and never cycling again.

I've become acquainted with a young lass (no nothing like that) whom I see and chat to several times a week. She rides a bike - as transport. Well, calling it a bike is a bit generous. It's a bike shaped object with heavy looking front suspension, a concave plastic saddle and a very rusty chain.

Anyway, I offered to service it for her and see if we could find a more comfortable saddle. No interest in that at all - because she's determined that she will pass her driving test soon and then can drive to all her appointments.

I left it at that. I didn't want to push. Don't think she realised I rode a bike, despite having ridden past her numerous times. She will always stop and say hello when she sees me out with the dog, so I guess I just blend into the background with a helmet on.

Anyway - this reminded me of myself when I was that age, and there was no changing my mind either. I wanted independence and I viewed driving and owning a car as the key to the independence. With what I now know, if I had my time again I wouldn't bother.

It's a shame because for the trips she is doing (all local appointments) a car is going to be less optimal than a half decent bike - at least in terms of journey times.

It seems things have not changed over the last few decades. Do they need to?

 

[All uphill]

Car use is so deep in our culture. Much more than a way of getting round.

This guy says it well.


View: https://youtu.be/PdqZsRayyFk?feature=shared

 

[Dogtrousers]

This is why you should do your coming of age in London. When I was late teens early 20s I'd visit friends outside London and they all had cars - mostly old bangers that were their pride and joy. But I really can't remember any of my friends in London owning a car. I had one mate who used to have use of one, but that was all. (This was early 80s btw). I used to hire one every now and then.

I did stop riding a bike mind. I just switched to buses and trains. But I carried on riding for leisure (touring hols etc) for a while.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Its not a new problem. At some point after a 'play' on my bike I put it away, and started commuting on anything but a bike and never thought to use my bike for it. If someone had said to me 'hey that hour long miserable bus journey could instead be a dead easy 25 min ride' I might have got back on one again a lot sooner.

I'll recommend a bike to people I think might be better on one, thats all I can do really and wish someone had said that to me years ago!

 

[Dadam]

I fell off my bike aged 13 or 14 and never got on another for 35 years! It was sitting on a bus in gridlocked traffic for an hour hardly moving while cyclists where whizzing past that planted the seed. At first I thought "bastards", then I thought, hell I could do that it's only a few miles!

 

[presta]

I was counting the days until I could drive from the age of about 11, and when I got the car I used to drive nowhere just for the enjoyment of driving.

 

[Drago]

Very few kids on bikes round here anyway. They're either illegally using the trial e scooters, of being ferried everywhere by Mummy in her new Defender.

There's an Indian lady (big Hindu population here for some reason) I see riding with two young kids on bicycles many mornings, and it's lovely to see. Sadly they're on the path but I don't blame them - it's plenty wide, and the way the school run SUVs are thrapped up and down the road you can't blame her.

 

[All uphill]

I grew up in Norfolk and understood from about 10 years old that the key to a life was having a car. It took me an awfully long time to unlearn that.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You hear how following generations are meant to be more environmentally conscious. But this just kind of says, certainly not. It’s sad.

 

[Drago]

You hear how following generations are meant to be more environmentally conscious. But this just kind of says, certainly not. It’s sad.

They talk big, but when it comes to doing something themselves most folk are lacking.

You only have to look at the Facebook pages of the Just Halt Coal mob, as the the media do when they get arrested. They're preaching against fossil fuels yet have pages full of images of themselves on foreign holidays and the like. One had something like 100,000 miles of international flights in 4 years yet claimed to be campaigning because of their environmental conscience. Hhmmm.

When the US climate envoy has a private jet and owns shares in a private jet leasing company you realise that talk isn't just cheap - theyre positively giving it away.

I'm afraid us brave few who actually ride bicycles are the main group actually walking the walk, and most of us do it because we enjoy it or like the convenience, the environmental benefits are largely incidental.

 

[raleighnut]

Car use is so deep in our culture. Much more than a way of getting round.

This guy says it well.


View: https://youtu.be/PdqZsRayyFk?feature=shared

I still smoke cigarettes but strongly object to breathing in car fumes, smoking is a choice but breathing in exhaust emissions is unavoidable, I was stood outside the Co-op last week and some fecker had his Diesel car running..............absolutely stunk.
I'm in my mid 60's now and have smoked since I was 12 but I'm sure that exhaust fumes are more harmful and having a fag is less damaging

 

[presta]

I grew up in Norfolk and understood from about 10 years old that the key to a life was having a car. It took me an awfully long time to unlearn that.

It was having my licence confiscated that (in part) led to me giving up driving, by the time I got it back I'd just grown used to making do without the car. If I hadn't lost my licence I'd probably still be driving.