Bike Commuting and The Suspension Of The Desire For Comfort

Bike To Work Week Rain Day from Brendan on Vimeo.

Watch the video above before continuing on. It's only a couple of minutes. 

Can you picture yourself riding in these conditions? When I ride on these kinds of days I always get to thinking and this ride was no different.  While cruising along with the trucks whizzing past me and the chilly drizzle coating me in gossamer dew like the automatic watering system in the A&P produce section, as the water dripped from my helmet I had another one of those "Aha!" moments. I realized that part of the reason I have these brainstorms while  riding in less than ideal circumstances is that my brain is shutting off the part that demands physical comfort and focusing on the internal stuff. It's just a defense mechanism, pure and simple! I think this is the thing that allows us to do stuff like climb Mount Everest, or pick up decaying road kill, or change stinky diapers. 

When we need to, we have the ability to push through unpleasant circumstances in order to get something we want. When we do it enough, the circumstances simply become circumstances and no longer push us out of our comfort zone. We can get used to anything. 

When it comes to getting people change their behavior, i.e.-not using their cars for trips under 2 miles-, it just won't happen until the painful circumstance of paying $5 for a gallon of gas overcomes the potential discomfort of using their own power for transportation. We can build bike lanes and parking, put up share the road signs, spend money on public awareness campaigns, etc. --None of those things will have a broad impact until people can overcome the perception that they are going to be uncomfortable. The biggest hurdle that we face in preventing us from ruining our planet is that, as a nation, we are soft. We have lost touch with our ability to "tough it out" and our selfishness is preventing us from thinking globally. 

When I ride past the lines of mini-vans, and SUVs and sports cars filled with overweight, donut eating, stressed-out oil slaves, with their telephones pressed to their heads as they carelessly weave about totally separated from the world, I want to shout out to them "wake up and seize your power, it's not too late!"

But unfortunately they are too comfortable to hear me and, sadly, will never realize the gifts they possess. 

The Power of Choice and Commitment

Can an alcoholic really quit drinking if the house is full of booze? Is it possible for an overweight person to lose weight if the cupboard is filled with Twinkies, chips, and soda? Maybe, but the odds are against success. And so, like the junkie who must quit heroin or die, I sold my car to drive no more. When I started the year without cars last July, I figured that I could park my car and just resist the temptation to use it except when absolutely necessary. But when the weather turned rough and the winter darkness took over both the sky and my mood, I couldn't resist the comfort of heat and separation from the elements. I used my bicycle very little from December through March. Yes, I was very busy with planning the New Jersey Bikes Summit and I needed to travel a lot, but the reality is I chose driving my car because it was easier. I can’t really say that I was forced to drive--I chose to. But now I am choosing to not drive and getting rid of my car is the best way for me to be able to stick to my choice. It feels good to be able to make this harder choice. Unlike my friend Javier, who rides to work everyday in every type of weather, I have a choice. Lot’s of people who say, “well, that’s good for you, but I have no choice” don’t realize that they do have a choice but won’t own up to it. If you choose to drive in a car, that’s fine. I guess my point is that people make up all kinds of rationalizations and excuses for their behavior without accepting responsibility for their choices.

Us humans have an amazing capacity for willful ignorance. I don’t think most people would say they don’t care about their health, or the environment, or the safety of their neighbors, but if you looked around how could you conclude that they did care? We continue to eat poorly, smoke, drink, waste resources, drive like idiots, poison our air and water, treat our neighbors with contempt and just generally make bad choices as though we were forced to do these things. We can get caught up in listening and reacting to one “expert” or another on just about any topic but at the end of the day I think most of us can judge good from bad, healthy from harmful, right action from wrong. But here we are, willfully ignoring that many of our choices will lead to results we know that we don't want. We know it ahead of time and we do it anyway and then act surprised when it happens. People dying in accidents involving drunk driving are a great example. You have a couple of drinks, you know your impaired, you get in your car and drive home anyway. Whoops, you killed someone on the way. Then you hire a lawyer to try and get you out of it because you don’t want to suffer the consequences of your choice.

My choice to ride my bike on the street presents a real possibility of injury or death as a result of my choice. The person who chooses to send a text message while driving might veer into the shoulder where I am riding and run me over. We will both have to accept the results of our choices.  

beau coup bottles

beau coup bottles
Originally uploaded by brendan61

One of the signs that bicycles are a priority at our house.

Winter is Over!

Wow, it's been over a month since I've posted! Early spring is always a very busy time of year for a bike store and this year has been particularly so. The weather turned nice a few weeks earlier than usual and as a result the floodgates have opened and the deluge folks looking to get back on their bikes has been overwhelming. Here below is a short film from the "great flood of 2010" that happened a few weeks ago. Some people are still recovering from flooding.  Riding a bike in rain has been interesting, to say the least!

The Great Flood of 2010 from Brendan on Vimeo.

New Jersey Bike Summit!

The first ever New Jersey Bicycle Summit is over and we are on our way to a better New Jersey. 130 advocates from around the state joined together with national advocates, state legislators and the Department of Transportation to energize the Bicycle Friendly Movement and set an agenda for the future. 

Included below are my opening remarks:

As the United States of America travels headlong into the future, our nation faces monumental challenges unprecedented in human history. We are on the tipping point between saving and irreparably ruining the atmosphere on which our very lives depend. Americans face a crisis of health from debilitating illnesses due to lack of exercise and poor dietary choices. Our children are becoming lethargic, obese- diabetics who are incapable of walking a mile to school and we are spending ourselves into oblivion trying to fight these problems through a corrupt insurance system that provides obscene profits to a select few while denying care to many in need.  Meanwhile, our national security is increasingly threatened by an insatiable appetite for energy produced in foreign lands filled with people who have no interest in our continued success. As people buy more and more cars to get to jobs, and shopping, and recreation that all become farther and farther apart, our roads become jammed with traffic and our air becomes poison. Our quality of life, that was supposed to get better as technology eased our burdens, has become increasingly stressful and unsatisfying.

Just recently people seem to be waking up and realizing that we must address these problems before it is too late. We’re all “going green”. Prizes are offered for technological breakthroughs and billions are spent trying to figure out how to perpetuate the misguided car culture by replacing gas powered cars with electric cars that don’t really address the underlying problem of time and space. But what if there was a simpler solution? What if people had the freedom to go where they wanted at a reasonably fast speed and not use a single drop of gas or watt of electricity? What if four people could travel in the space now used by only one? What if this solution made people healthier by reducing their weight and improving the efficiency of their circulatory system? What if this solution was cheap to buy and easy to maintain? Wouldn’t that be marvelous? The best part is that this solution already exists and has been with us since the nineteenth century! This solution for freedom in personal transportation is the humble bicycle. 

Our challenge is not in coming up with this solution but in helping people to recognize and embrace this obvious truth. All of the arguments that are offered to exclude bicycles as a part of a larger solution in overcoming problems in health, energy, and transportation, are all easily overcome in light of the successes in places like Copenhagen Denmark, Davis California, Portland Oregon, and Louisville Kentucky. In all of these examples it is shown that quality of life improves for cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Reduced traffic congestion and pollution, better health and lower healthcare costs, energy saved—who could possibly argue against these benefits? And yet here we are, faced with the challenge of carrying this message and proving to the people of New Jersey that these things are worth having. It is up to us to bring this truth to our neighbors and elected officials that an equitable transportation infrastructure benefits everyone. People have asked me why we need the bike coalition.  There are already many people engaged in this work. The West Windsor Bike/Ped Association, Bike/Walk Montclair, Hoboken Sweet Streets, JORBA, and Walk/bike New Jersey, just to name a few. But I say, that if we are going to make real changes, we must unify our efforts and speak with one voice in doing our part for the well being of future generations. So let today be the day that we look back to as the turning point in creating a better New Jersey, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. Let today be the day that we join together in proclaiming  “The future is coming and it will be powered by people!” 

Happiness Rides A Bicycle

Life is short, there’s no denying it. And what is the purpose for any individual in living life? This is a question that has been pondered and debated since there has been language. Once you get to the point where just getting food is no longer the main activity on your daily agenda, you start to wonder just what is the point. I suppose that religion, and books, and plays, and songs, and TV shows, and movies, and paintings, and every other form of expression and communication that examines the nature of being,

exist because of this question. So what of it? Well, I am no robe wearing monk who spends a lot of time meditating on this but I will have to agree with the Dalai Lama on this one who counsels that happiness is the point of life. We exist to experience happiness. That is a simple and elegant answer, no? So how do you get to experience happiness? Well, that’s where it gets tricky again. For each individual the definition of happiness might be different. The Lama (big hitter the Lama) says that you will experience happiness by being selfless and doing things for others. We end our own suffering by letting go of the desire for the impermanent things of the physical world.

I’m not saying that’s how it is because I still find the thought of riding a really nice bicycle to be very appealing and makes me happy just thinking about it!  People do seem to be able to tell you whether or not they feel happy though, and it appears to be a pretty good indicator of how excited you are about being alive. So if the point is to be happy what does it take to make it happen? I’m not completely sure but I think I do have some clues. First, I think it’s important to find out where there are lots of happy people. Now, at this point you might be tempted to just ask them why they are happy but you wouldn’t get the same answer from any two people. Similar yes, but the answer for each person is likely to be different. No, at this point it’s better to just examine the circumstances in which these happy people live and you will have your “Aha!” moment. Fortunately all of this research has been done for us! You can read about it here. Do you know where the happiest people in the world live? The answer is Denmark. The United States did not even make the top ten. However, if you want to know where the happiest people in the United States are, you can read about it here. The short answer is Boulder, Colorado.

So, if the happiest place in the world is Denmark, what are the circumstances that the Danes live with? Socialized medicine and education, where everybody gets free education and healthcare, about 2% unemployment, and one of the highest GDP per capita of any industrialized nation. Yet, the average Dane only works about 37 hours per week! To top it off, the Danish culture embraces the idea of livable cities and communities that focus on people instead of cars. As a result, about 40% of the population uses a bicycle for transportation every day.

So what does Boulder have in common with Denmark? Well, it’s not free healthcare. We know that for sure! There is public education but  once you’re out of high school it ain’t free any more. So what’s the commonality? Boulder is focused on creating communities for people that include bike lanes and livable public spaces! Folks in Boulder place a strong emphasis on a healthy lifestyle that balances work and the rest of life. (Just like Denmark!) Happy people have figured out that working a lot makes you wealthy but it does not make you happy. Happy people have also figured out that if you are overweight and lethargic you probably are not able to really enjoy life the way you would like.

So the answer we are all looking for has been circling around us all along.

The answer is bicycles. Or, I should say, the idea of bicycles and what they represent. It’s not necessarily the bicycles themselves that are making people happy (although I am sure it happens a lot) because in Denmark, even the people who don’t ride a bicycle are happier because they too enjoy the underlying benefits of livable communities that emphasize the importance of people over machines.  Less pollution, healthier people, a tolerable pace of life that leaves time to enjoy the simple things—I submit that these are the things that make for happiness and they arrive on the seat of a bicycle.

Snowpocalypse!

Snowpocalypse from Brendan on Vimeo.

As promised here is a snowy video. In the scheme of things this is really not such a big deal but since we have not had much snowfall for the past few years it seems like one. It is much worse down in Washington DC but still, the folks from places like Buffalo, NY and the high country in Colorado laugh at us because we act like such a bunch of babies. Snowpocalypse indeed. One of the funny things (or maybe not so funny, depending on your point of view) are the jackasses at Fox News (?) like Shawn Hannity using this snow fall as a way of saying "see? this proves there's no climate change!" Aye, aye, aye--is it normal for people to behave in such a willfully ignorant way? Anyway, enjoy the moment of Zen.