Further to my rant about the miserable lives of non-cyclists, I would like to outline something else I noticed during my two week episode off the bike.
I was too sick to ride to work so I chose to drive my car, commuting at peak hour in Townsville, a city of 150 000 people. My usual cyclo-commute [patent pending] takes me on a 14 km journey from my riverside home to my riverside work, you guessed it, along a river. I like to think of myself as pretty dam lucky to have such a picturesque, peaceful and safe commuter route. For the two weeks I was car ridden I commuted through suburbia, onto a freeway, through various traffic lights and roundabouts and into work. This sucked. Little did I know that 149 984 people in Townsville choose to drive to work every day in individual cars, leaving only 16 people to risk their lives dodging between these lonely auto-commuters [patent pending]. It took me freak’n half an hour to drive 13 km one afternoon, what drugs are these people on!!!
So I came up with a few benefits of cyclo-commuting [patent pending]:
1. I bet you thought my number one benefit would be that it keeps me fit. You were wrong, I actually prefer to think of it as keeping me from looking like a fat jam roll wedged between a steering wheel and a head rest.
2. Although you do technically need to be awake to drive to work, half of the people on the road in the morning are functioning at about 17.6% of their mental capacity and don’t reach anywhere near their max until well into little lunch. My morning ride wakes me up like a hot cup of java.
3. It takes me 30 mins to ride to work, or 20 to drive. Riding is free and saves the planet. You do the math.
4. Cars hold up cars.
SO, in summary, cyclo-commuting [patent pending] is cool because it stops you from becoming a dumb, oil burning, traffic blocking, stop-go lump of lard.
Burn fat not oil!