Self-Propelled City: Bike Commuting: A Better Way to Travel

	Shop	Search	Contribute	Contact	Facts	Links	5 September 2010, 3:17 pm

S E L F - P R O P E L L E D C I T Y

previous 10 | next 10

Bike Commuting: A Better Way to Travel
[3 February 2000] Paul Dorn

There is much information on bicycle commuting available on the WWW. Why create yet another page on commuting by bike? Why reinvent the wheel, so to speak?
Most of the people I know - my family and friends - travel by means other than the bicycle. For the most part, they are still internal combusters. In a society such as ours, where more money is spent advertising automobiles than is spent on the entire national mass transit system, where everyone's background assumption equates travel with driving, it isn't easy to make the shift to bicycle commuting. I can attest to that. As detailed below, I made many mistakes. I did it all wrong.
This essay isn't intended as the comprehensive guide to commuting by bicycle. It's not a "program" intended to work for everyone, in every situation. It merely relates the hard lessons learned by one cyclist over many years of riding to work everyday. My hope is that prospective bike commuters will avoid my errors. If nothing else, my experience demonstrates that it can be done. The addiction to driving can be broken, the necessity of mass transit strap-hanging can be avoided. The following might, just might, encourage others to discover how bicycle commuting can enhance their lives . . .

To read this inspiring essay, go to userwww.sfsu.edu/~pdorn/Commuting/commuting.html

	Read	−\|−	Shop	−\|−	Search	−\|−	Contribute	−\|−	Contact	−\|−	Facts	−\|−	Links