Raise a Biker, Not a Driver
The rain was hitting our faces as we pedaled away from our house.
We thought it might drizzle. But it was raining.
“Are we really doing this?” I asked my husband, Tommy.
He glanced back at the kids tucked into the bike trailer. “Let’s turn back.”
We looped around as Tommy hollered back to our oldest daughter, “Nell! We're heading home because of the rain!"
"Whyyyy?" She whined back.
The plastic cover over the trailer was keeping both girls dry.
"I guess they're fine." I said to Tommy with a shrug. We each had our rain gear on, so we laughed and looped around a second time to head towards town.
Biking is always more fun than driving. Even in the rain.
Tommy and I realized this shortly after we got married and started biking to the bars rather than driving. Our small mountain town had a bike path that followed a river all the way to the neighboring town. We’d ride back home way too late and pull into the only spot still open – a little ski bum pizza shop. It didn't matter what else happened that evening – what restaurant we went to or who we met up with – we felt more alive when we cruised around on our bikes.
Fast forward to three years ago when we moved from Colorado to Ohio to be near family. Tommy and I both work from home and knew our new city would be more bike-friendly than the wilderness cabin we were living in at the time. That’s when we made the decision to sell one vehicle and get accustomed to our new city as a single-car family.
Bikes make you resilient
Tommy takes a cold shower each morning. He doesn’t always want to do it, but he feels much better after he’s finished. While biking is much more enjoyable than a cold shower, choosing to pedal rather than drive delivers a similar benefit.
Our brains are designed to take the easy, comfortable path. And we get very comfortable in our 70° cars with seat warmers and lumbar support. While packing up to head to the library last night, I noticed my brain say, “You should just drive. It’s chilly and it'll be dark on the ride home.” Nope. I grabbed my headlamp and walked out the door.
Biking makes you more mentally tough. The fresh air and exercise are just bonus.
In the winter, I slip a thin, waterproof jacket and pants over my outfit every day. I wear a buff, hat, mittens, and if it's really cold, my snowboard goggles. That shell keeps me completely warm (if not hot) by the time I get to my destination.
Cars can be a drag
My dad has a bike that's 55 years old and in his words, it "runs like a top." If you take care of them, bikes don't lose their value. And they don't cost much.
When I was in my 20's, I found myself in $2,000 of credit card debt. I had an entry-level job in one of the most expensive places in the country. In an effort to climb out of the hole I'd dug, I sold my car to buy a new $300 bike. No more car insurance, oil changes, or gas receipts. I picked up a second job and within months, I was saving much more than I was spending.
For a nation that can get into an uproar about gas prices, most people don't think to pull their bike out of their garage rather than their car.
Instead, they sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic and stress about finding a parking spot upon arrival.
A city planner once told me, "You'll never outbuild your traffic problem. You must instead change human behavior."
What if we raised our kids to bike rather than drive?
Before Kindergarten, our daughter, Nell, used to go to a Forest School that was on the other side of the river from where we live. The bridge that goes over that river gets backed up with traffic.
When biking into Forest School, I'd yell back to Nell, "Look at all those cars! Aren't you glad we aren't stuck in that?!" And we'd both yell, "Wooooohooo!!" as we cruised past them.
Bikes are Empowering
When you're on your bike, you're in control. It's like being behind the joystick of a real live video game. You're part of the world rather than observing it through car windows.
A car ride causes you to zone out. Sometimes I pull my van in and realize I don’t even remember how I got there. Not on a bike. The movement and fresh air clear your head. Your body and sense come alive the same way they did when you were a kid. You feel free.
Nell has graduated from the bike trailer up to the "trail-a-bike," which is basically a tandem hook-up that enables her to pedal. Her imagination goes wild back there. I hear her sing or pretend to be a superhero. We shoot powers out of our palms to hold up falling trees or crumbling bridges. She rides behind me but leads the play.
And I love this view for her. Rather than looking at the back of her mom's head inside the car, she sees me pumping up a hill or maneuvering between cars.
Don't get me wrong – we love our van and still use it every day. There isn't a great biking route to our youngest daughter's daycare, and of course not everything is within reasonable biking distance. But Tony Desnick with Nice Ride Minnesota reports that 50% of the trips we use our cars for are under two miles away.
I used to belong to a gym that was one and a half miles from my house. Nearly every day, I’d chat with someone who said, “You biked here?!” I attributed their surprise to the weather, the intensity of the workout, or simply because it’s normal to start up your car and drive, regardless of how short the trip.
But we can shift what’s normal. To our girls, it was perfectly normal to continue biking in that rainstorm. People turned their heads in their cars as we splashed by, but the girls weren't phased as we pulled them out of the bike trailer in the rain when we got to the library.
