By way of C.I.C.L.E., we find that plenty of riders in S.L.O. County have an answer to the question "why bike to work?" They've a series of excellent entries to an essay competition, with the final winner using a mathematical argument to prove that "bicycling is the absolute most efficient means of transport that has ever been invented. Anywhere. Ever."

The equal runners-up respectively speak of sharing valuable time with a child and building gradually to ride all the way to work.

And an older entry at Blue Collar Mountain Biking points to an article in Columbus Business First, talking about cycling corporate commuters in that city.

Common threads

In all this there are some common threads most of which resonate with me:

  • secretly smirking at drivers

  • friends and workmates that don't understand (actually, I can't think of anyone who thinks my cycle commuting is weird)

  • enjoying the change of seasons

  • saving time while exercising

  • saving money on things like fuel for a car, parking, maintenance

And so on.

I recommend you get across to the SLO County Bicycle Coalition site to read the essays yourself - they're really good stuff.

Comments

pedaller

Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention Treadly. The contest itself was a wonderful idea, but the essays are really quite amazing. I'm still giggling to myself over the, "Drivers who fall asleep at the wheel result in 20,000 accidents a year. Bicyclists who fall asleep simply fall down" not to mention the comaprison between the negative effects of driving too much and the positive effects of cycling too much (sexy calves and thighs). Perhaps the RTA and Vicroads could use some of these comparisons in their cycling propaganda?

Treadly&Me

Yeah, that's a good one. I also liked:

To date, no one has ever been involved in a deadly alcohol-related hit-and-run on a bicycle.

It's easy to see why this guy won - it's pretty hard to argue with those numbers!