Gandhi's birthday

Sometimes, like some of you I'm sure, I am alerted to certain observances, celebrations, and holidays by the Google homepage.



For example, today is Gandhi's birthday.

Happy birthday, Gandhi!

You'd be 140 years old!

Here's a short excerpt from Jeff Mapes's Pedaling Revolution, in which the author is quoting one John Dowlin.

"I really felt the bicycle could be for the world's cities what the spinning wheel was for Gandhi," he said as we sat inside and warmed ourselves with coffee. Just as Gandhi saw India producing its own cloth as a way to free itself from British domination, the bicycle could free urban centers from an over-reliance on cars.

It's a cute analogy.

It's not too far off base to describe car culture in terms an oppressive, imperialist force.

And rebelling against British authority is kind of hard wired into our cultural identity, isn't it?

You taken that Mtn Bike on any Mtns?

In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes commented very briefly on utility vehicles—both motorized and human-powered—being used to their specification:

"Just as most SUVs never went off the paved road, most mountain bikes sold probably never touched the dirt."

Cars and bikes both can be used to their exact specification. You can get a Land Rover or a Gary Fisher and go crashing through the wilderness. You can get a sports car or a cyclocross bike and race it.

A lot of people don't do that though. They don't use their vehicles to their exact specifications. They don't take their mountain bikes outside the city, and the only racing they do is from traffic light to traffic light.

Which is okay.

As long as you're on a bike. Not so much if you're in a car.

If you're consuming all the extra resources needed to fuel an over-sized sports car engine, or to fuel an over-sized SUV, but you're not doing anything with those vehicles but commuting to work or going to the grocery store, well then than that's kind of wasteful isn't it?

It doesn't require any extra resources to move a mountain bike or a racing bike through the same urban environment. Because, after all, your engine remains the same no matter what bike you're on. (Your engine is you!)

What I ultimately mean to say is that I got some bias! I got some bias, and I got some double standards!

I think it's okay to have a mountain bike that never touches dirt. I don't think it's okay to have an SUV that never leaves the road.

And I'm quite content in my bias here, folks!

Belva Lockwood's tricycle

From Jeff Mapes's Pedaling Revolution, on the bicycle's role in women's liberation in the late 1800s.

Belva Ann Lockwood, the presidential candidate of the Equal Rights Party in 1884 and 1888, used an adult-sized tricycle to travel about the nation's capital and proclaimed after she was photographed riding: "There is a principle behind that picture. A tricycle means independence for women, and it also means health."

I'd have voted for her.

I've mentioned this before, but one half of our fleet here at the homestead is a 1950s adult-sized tricycle that we use to transport people, groceries, dogs, firewood, and anything else that needs moving.

A tricycle does mean independence. For women and for men.

I was initially reluctant to abandon my car because I didn't know how to carry stuff on a bike. I could only stuff a backpack with so much.

Once I procured a rear rack and some panniers, this problem vanished. There's now nothing I need to have with my during my commute—or on longer pleasure cruises—that I can't carry on my bike.

For bigger trips, I have an old Cannondale trailer to hitch to my bike.

And I have a trike with an extra large basket in the back.

I don't need a car to carry large loads around. I have two high capacity human-powered vehicles that suit my needs perfectly well.

And that means liberation.

And it also means health.