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REVOLUTIONS- biking in NJ
Friday, 26 August 2005
The Reluctant Motorist [or why I like my bike]
Topic: Reluctant Motorist
The other day after reading about stricter fuel-economy standards in the newspaper, I drove my car. Normal for most people, but to me a noteworthy event. My friend Patty was going to the City and I decided to be nice and give her a lift.

My little Honda Civic of 1991 vintage [several crashes, several rebuilds, nearly 200,000 miles and still going strong] is something I use sparingly, not just out of a patriotic effort to avoid wasting gas, but because I simply like to ride my bike.

I don't often go to the train station midday on a weekday -- even when I took the train to work it was in the norming and night -- so I wasn't quite prepared for the shock of not finding a parking space. People apparently DRIVE to go take the train these days, and they don't just drive normal cars, they take huge SUVs build like battletanks. Normally this would just be a sad amusement to me -- I walked and rode my bike when I used the train regularly -- but now it was a concern; there was no parking!

Finding half a spot that remained betwixt a Jeep Sport Ute and a huge Nissan or Acura or something I put my car in park, took a last glance out the rear window plastered with Trek, Lemond, Shimano, "I'd rather be riding", and other bike stickers, and opened the driver's door. Big mistake.

The door opened six inches and stopped. Turning sideways, I squeezed myself out of the car but not before I nearly ripped my rather nice watch off my wrist and nearly dislocated my bad shoulder. Once out of the car, I tried and managed to close the door; the two SUV's each took up about 1 1/4 spots, and with one on either side, it was practically impossible to park anything bigger than a Matchbox car between them. But it was the only space, and the train was coming.

As much an many poke fun at the SUV, with it's ungainly size, hard-to-clean-off-the-snow height in the winter, and it's wasteful gas guzzling, nearly everyone drives one. Fine. That's their business -- as long as they drive within the limits of reason and the traffic laws. Remember those editorials about "lawless" cyclists? I geta' laugh out of them every time I'm nearly run down by some idiot in an SUV. Yet, let there be no mistake; it is not just the SUV, any more than the cell phone, or the newspaper-reading-while-driving-on-i287. The problem is the judgement of these people, namely how and when they drive -- not what they drive, per se.
And also how they park.

There are bigger spots in every lot, and the drivers of large SUV's could park in those. But they don't. They go wherever they want, without regard for whether they fit. I never forget the first time I nearly got clipped by one of these tanks, I was minding my own business on my bicycle when some dude in a huge Excursion tried to drive past on the shoulder, which was only a few feet wide!

So my first reaction when I read the papers and see arguments for stricter CAFE standards to combat dependence on foriegn oil, I grimace. By forcing cars to become smaller, existing CAFE standards are pushing people out of large sedans or station wagons and into SUVs, trucks, and un-mini-vans. The dangers that this will continue are legion.

Moreover, even if people were to buy smaller cars, I am not sure that sould solve the idiot problem, or the fuel one....

Ultimately the fuel problem is a political and technological one; until we develop better technology, we are going to be at the mercy of environmental and arab fanatics when hitting the gas pump. Dependence on foreign oil is a direct result of our refusal to be dependant on ourselves, not only in terms of how many people drive when they could bike, but in terms of our political leaders being too softbacked to grow the spines to drill for oil on our own shores, if needed.

As to the idiot problem, an idiot in a SUV isn't an idiot because he is in an SUV. That is just one simptom. The danger in trying to remove the SUV's by government decree is that it will hide the problem,
if not make it outright worse; imagine the same idiotic SUV pilots suddenly seated behind the wheel of tiny imports, under the impression that they are in The Fast and The Curious? In fact, given their total unconcern for their current vehicle's size, it isn't likely they would get worse. But imagine that person who thinks a truck will fit on a two foor shoulder now driving a tiny Toyota? It's only a question of time until they try to fit it even places they never tried to force their SUV to go.
In addition, anti SUV legislation wouls come too close to violating people's rights. Let's face it, if you want to take a machine designed to go on a safari, and use it to drive to the train station half a block away, that's your business.

Just don't take up more than one parking space. Then it becomes my business.

In the meantime, I prefer my two wheels to four. Especially as it is a hell of a lot easier to find a spot to park it!

Posted by Elvis at 8:52 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 29 August 2005 1:25 PM EDT
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