“Get off the road you damn bikers.”
It was a phrase I often muttered when trying to drive across town and being slowed down by a cyclist on the road. Times have surely changed now. I am one of the people now. Other people are yelling at me now.
My wife and I have shared a Toyota Yaris for over a year now. Most of the time, the one vehicle does fine for us. My wife can walk to work, which helps quite a bit. Since I got my office in town, I’ve been using the car a lot more than I used to. Recently, we’ve had several conflicts with the car schedule. The dreaded “second car” discussion finally came up again.
To us, a second car means our lifestyle ends. It’s any easy $300 extra each month that we currently use for savings, an occasional meal and a yearly piece of furniture. Sending off extra money to banks and rouge nations kind of makes my stomach turn. Plus, driving is not that fun anymore. There are too many cars on the road. I started looking at bikes from Target to see what a starter bike would cost. Target had a nice Schwinn with a funky curved frame for around $200 bucks. That amount is less than one month’s car payment, so I was like, “why not?”
I used Google Maps to find streets with the least amount of traffic that still connected with the city. I had good luck finding lowly traveled connectors like Murdock instead of using Merrimon or Kimbery. At first, I was so out of shape, that my bike would not go too fast. I was intimidated by the traffic. Lately, I’ve become more daring and comfortable with the bike. I will get into traffic and use my rights just like any other “Damn Biker” that used to get in my way while I was driving.
There’s a lot of passion in Asheville for bicycles, and I’m glad to be joining the crowd. I wish the city had more areas for bikes. My shortcuts will have to do for now. The general lack of paths is what scared me away from it for so long. But now the cost of gas and car ownership is so high that the pros outweigh the cons. I bike around 6 miles each day to and from work.
So how much do you save?
Upfront, we save like $300 per month by skipping the second car. I looked around for other measures of savings and found the “Gas Savings Calculator” at BikeCommuters.com. The Yaris is so efficient, that my savings on gas for my commute is only about $12 per month. Still, there are numerous unseen benefits like stress relief, health and reduction of consuption.
No silly, the price of gas will not come down unless you do something to make it come down.
People are so funny. Most folks I come across don’t have a firm grasp on supply and demand. They tend the think that the politicians need to “do something” to fix the price of gas. Then, they keep on driving the Escalade across town to work like it’s nothing. Listen, in order to reduce the “cost” of fuel, you need to reduce “demand” as well. There are many proven ways to do this:
- Buy goods and services online.
- Combine trips.
- Buy a more efficient car.
- Cycle or walk to nearby locations.
- Consume less meat
As I try to practice what I preach, I find my lifestyle changing each day. I wish that more Americans would realize how much we could reduce demand on gas if we all made a conscious effort to conserve energy. It’s not like you have to give up your car and become a vegetarian. But, perhaps, you can bike to work 2 times a week and eat a vegetarian meal once a week. Everything counts in large amounts
I think a lot of interesting things will happen as gas runs out. I think suburbia will dwindle and more people will come to the city. Nice condominiums and parks will lure them in. People will give cars up for buses, and bikes. We will get closer to the European model of the city as time moves on.
