Why not to bike

Ever think it's a hassle to get on your bike? It's raining. You've got too much to carry. You can't wear what you really want to wear. You're too tired. You'd rather just roll out of bed and into your car. I'm sure those of you out there with small children know that the temptation to use the car increases exponentially when you have to tow them around.

I've given in to that temptation. In the early months of motherhood, I had a very good excuse to use the car: you simply cannot carry a small infant on a bike. In circumstances like this, one's ideals often come head to head with practical and safety concerns. Many committed cyclists (though certainly not all) give up when they become parents, and use the car to transport their children. It's easy to fall into that category, and get accustomed to using the car.

Some of our customers go to great lengths to cycle with their kids.

My husband, unshaken in his commitment to human-powered transport, often wonders in frustration why most people chose to drive most of the time. But it really makes perfect sense. A car is comfortable, it protects you from the elements and you don't need any special gear or clothes to use it. Since it carries things for you, you can get more done in just one trip. Not only do you not have to expend any of your ow precious energy to power a car, you can even fortify yourself with food or coffee while driving. And, speaking of food, you don't even need to leave the comfort of your car to go to the drive-thru ATM to get cash for your drive-thru burger. Furthermore, the car creates an illusion of safety, seemingly isolating you from other drivers, their bad moods and their problems.

When making a decision about convenient transportation, few people stop to worry about the fairly obvious costs associated with driving. At the moment of getting into a car, they seem relatively remote. And virtually no one worries about the more deeply hidden, long range costs of owning and driving an automobile. The health costs you incur every minute you sit on your butt, inhaling exhaust, gnashing your teeth in helpless frustration against another gapers' block. The costs to drivers in general as they become irritable, impatient and desensitized to the needs of others around them. The costs to our neighborhoods, as they become less friendly, convenient and safe for pedestrians and children. The serious and statistically documented public safety costs. The costs to our environment... You get the point. You've heard it all before.

We, as a society, have a driving habit. Our cities and communities are designed, and continue to be designed, to support that habit. City planners accommodate our driving lifestyle. When we say something is convenient, we often mean it's convenient for the automobile. Our driving habit is very difficult to break, because our society condones it, values it and expects it. When you decide to ride your bike on the street, you have to weigh your beliefs against that practical reality. Because our streets are so completely given over to cars, and because drivers' tolerance for other vehicles on the road is very limited, safety is a real issue for all cyclists. It is even more vital to cyclists with small children. As a parent, you may be willing to take certain risks yourself, but you would never risk the safety of your child.

For all those reasons parents, including yours truly, succumb to the driving habit, and it can take much determination to change that. Parents have to be realistic and prudent about their transportation choices. For example, while I'm quite willing to ride seven miles down Elston Ave. to get myself to work, I'm unwilling to haul my children downtown on the back of the bike.

But just as biking doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing activity, neither does driving. Just because you have kids, doesn't mean you can never bike anywhere. Choose your battles.

• Groceries. In Chicago, you're rarely more than a mile away from a supermarket or local grocery. Tow a kid trailer on smaller streets, and stuff a couple of bags of food next to your precious cargo.
• Socializing. When you set play dates, allow a little extra time and take quiet streets to the park or friend's house where you are meeting. Anything under five miles is totally doable. Really.
• Activities. Chances are that if your kids take any classes, they are being held in your neighborhood. Bike there. We've biked around our neighborhoods dressed in Tae Kwon Do suits and ballet tutus, carrying a guitar on our back.
• School. If your kid goes to a local school, ride your bike there. When our son was in school, we started a trend of parents towing their kids there on trail-a-bikes.
• Library.
• Ice cream.
• Going out to eat.
• Recreation. Enjoy those off-street paths. That's what they are there for. If the Lakefront path is too crowded for your taste, try the new section of bike path along the North Branch of the Chicago River. There are playgrounds to stop at along the way, and if you go north of Peterson, you can take a little break at Borders. Or try the Sculpture Channel Trail in Skokie. Or the Lakefront, south of Downtown.

Biking can be really fun for kids. It turns ordinary errands into interesting adventures, and may eventually teach  children that there are more than one way of getting places.

Comments

[Cortney]

This is an excellent post. I am sending it to all of my automobile addicted relatives! They don't live in Chicago, which means it is even harder to get around without a car but they don't even try. Maybe this will encourage them.