Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Let's cut car use
Lynsey Hanley in the Guardian has a go at those drivers too stubborn or dumb to get out of their cars. Obviously a bunch of the people she's criticising have posted the usual nonsense about the horrors of public transport and how their cars save them so much time.I have one suggestion to everyone who says their commute takes only 20 or 30 minutes by car, especially whoever complained about finding time for the gym if they used public transport.
Get a bike.
Unless you're popping straight off your drive onto an empty motorway or A road and then getting straight off it into the works car park I could do your journey just as fast on my bike. Faster in some cases. And I wouldn't need to go to the gym after work. A decent commuter bike would pay for itself in four months or so.
In fact, it probably wouldn't take me much longer to do the journey on foot in most towns.
So I'll issue a challenge to you half hour commuters. Get on your bike one day. If you don't have a bike, borrow one. If you're scared about riding on the roads ask someone who does it regularly to show you the ropes. And bear in mind that the rest of the time you're one of the people who makes cycling scary.
Once you start cycling to work you'll wonder why you ever did it any other way.
Technorati tag: Cycling
posted by Ian at 6:29 PM