The Bicycle — My New Old Form of Transportation

Just add a bicycle trailer for doing the shopping

Learning to ride a bicycle is a milestone most children achieve some time in their pre-teen years. And it can be their primary mode of independent travel for all the years before they get their driver’s license. But once automated transportation is available, the poor bicycle is relegated to the back of the garage to collect dust. Poor bicycle.

But I say let’s pull out the dusty 2-wheeler and put it back on the road. For exercise, recreation, and even shopping, it is the perfect vehicle.

Riding for even 20 minutes is a quick boost in endorphins, those feel-good drugs in the brain. The time outdoors in sun under blue skies (or even cloudy skies) is a wonderful mood booster.

Bicycles are easier on the environment both in their manufacture and in their use. It is just a no-brainer to me that more bicycles on the roads is the answer.

A New Plan

How can roads be shared by cars and bicycles? Well, the cars will have to give, but it is for a good cause. The simple answer is to make all residential streets into one-way streets. Not cul-de-sacs obviously, but all the rest of the streets can be one-way. With the cars only using one lane, the bicycles can use the other which frees up the footpaths for pedestrians.

What say you? Join me on this adventure! Pull out your bicycle, wash off the dust, pump up the tires, and let’s hit the road!

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Originally published at https://letstalkabout.com.au on September 2, 2021.