tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16357902.post-1125930839737464042005-09-05T10:31:00.000-04:002005-09-05T10:33:59.740-04:00It's 8:30 on an early fall morning. You're powering down the bike path that parallels a nearby river and two-lane highway, and you feel great. Fresh air fills your lungs. Sunlight dapples through the leaves overhead, and a few twigs cover the path. The birds are even singing. <br /><br />You're in no hurry - you have 30 minutes to get to work and change into your clothes - so you slow down a notch to enjoy the scenery. Through the trees on your left you can see two people in a canoe paddling on the sparkling river, and hear the honking of a few Canada geese disturbed by their passage. Across the river, a few of the sugar maples are starting to turn color on the fringes. Yes, it's a beautiful morning, and a perfect day to be riding to work. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6206/464/1600/bikerear2-250.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6206/464/320/bikerear2-250.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Not everyone is in the same frame of mind, though. To your right, several hundred cars are experiencing a small eastbound traffic jam, backed up at a traffic light at the end of the two-lane highway. Most of the cars are occupied by a single driver. They grip the steering wheels tightly, squinting into the morning sun, trying to see the end of the jam. <br /><br />On the far side of the road, up a steep embankment, a similar scene is playing out on the four eastbound lanes of the interstate, but on a much larger scale. Tens of thousands of drivers are stuck in a traffic jam more than ten miles long. At this rate, they won't be at their desks until 9:30 or 10 in the morning. Nothing unusual there - it's like this almost every weekday morning. Some of the drivers have been dealing with rush-hour traffic jams on the interstate for decades. <br /><br />Yet it doesn't have to be this way. While most of these drivers live too far away to commute by bike, need their car for their jobs, or have to pick up children or spouses later in the day, a sizable minority fit the profile of potential bicycle commuters. For them, there is no real excuse why they can't try commuting by bike. <br /><br />This is particularly true of the many thousands of people who live and work within a half-mile of the bike paths. These paved routes are intended for bikers, pedestrians and other non-motorized recreational traffic, and stretch from the suburbs right into downtown. They offer a safe, scenic and quick route into town, yet they are chronically underused by bicycle commuters. <br /><br />Why? I suspect unfamiliarity with this mode of transport, myths about bicycle commuters, and of course American car culture. <br /><br />It's a shame, really. Many towns and cities in North America have constructed bike paths, or designated bike lanes on major roads, yet I suspect they are not used by many bicycle commuters. <br /><br />You have to go to places like the Netherlands or China to see widespread use of bicycles for transportation, and in the latter case, they are actually reducing space for bicycles to make way for cars!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/16357902-112593083973746404?l=bikeworker.blogspot.com'/></div>iannoreply@blogger.com