Wharton on UNCG faculty bike commuters:
My employer’s in-house newsletter has a story about faculty bicycle commuters in its latest issue.
Most of them do it for the same reasons I do: it’s fun, it’s good exercise, it saves money, and you can park near your building.
It’s interesting that none of them said that they’re doing it to cut greenhouse gasses and save the earth.
What I find interesting about Wharton’s posts on his cycling adventures is not once have I seen the usual messages put forth by other cycling advocates (via the mainstream media) about how Greensboro is not a cycling-friendly city, how they’re not enough bike lanes or how motorists don’t “share the road.” Wharton just jumps on the bike and gets it done. He obviously knows his routes, just like I know mine.
I often find myself conflicted as I’m pedaling around Greensboro, most often to a friend’s house in Sunset Hills via the Latham Park greenway. I’m a beneficiary of Greensboro’s existing greenway system and would definitely make use of future greenways as long as they’re fiscally feasible and don’t invade personal property.
What bothers me is the way city planners continually shove bike transportation down our throats as part of their perfect-world vision. If everyone could only ride their bikes everywhere, they believe, we would reduce our use of fossil fuels, the air would be cleaner and global warming would cease to exist. The world would be saved.
I don’t like perfect world visions, because there’s no such thing as a perfect world. The majority of Greensboro citizens either want better bicycle transportation or they don’t, and city planners should react accordingly. It’s a lot more simple than saving the world.
