The Revolution Will Come With Pedals

“I like to ride a bicycle.” There I said it. I know it is nerdy. I know it is not trendy. I know that it is not “cool” to ride a bicycle - especially the kinds of bikes I ride. However, with the current state of the economy, rising gas and oil prices, global warming threats popping up hither and yon, it seems to me that possessing a joy of cycling is one of the last signs of evolved human thinking.

Maybe tomorrow a new Star Trek-esque propulsion system will pop up and we will all be saved from the horrors of our polluting ways. Burning fossil fuels will magically go away and we will be able to putt around in real “green” vehicles that only emit fresh smelling droplets of cleaner-than-Aquifina water from their tailpipes and continue to put forth little to zero physical effort into our mobility. But I doubt it. We are in too deep.

I rather liken the journey off of the addiction to fossil fuels as steering the Titanic away from the impending iceberg - except our Titanic is traveling at freeway speed, was built in Detroit, and all the Captains at the helm are drunk from sucking down pints of crude with their other rich crude swilling captain friends. We don’t realize that when our ship strikes the ‘berg, if it hasn’t already, those Captains "in charge" will simply crack the whip on their private pilots to fire up their private jets and they will be off like they were never there to their private islands. The rest of us are locked in third class to drown in the fumes and toxic soup that we are blindly creating.

H.G Wells said, "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." This is pretty powerful coming from the guy who is known as one of the Fathers of science fiction. Sadly for Wells, there are not many adults on bicycles - especially here in the United States - where the bicycle is largely viewed as a pleasure vehicle for nerds, toys for kids, or transportation for people who got to many DUI’s. Indeed, Wells would probably shed tears at the state of cycling in the US today. It is time for us as cyclists to take Wells’ words to heart as the future holds an “us versus them” scenario.

The greater society will not let go of their fossil fuel addiction without a fight. The built environment just won’t allow it, and neither will the zombified perception toward cycling. We have planned, built, lived, and conditioned ourselves to be slaves to the very thing we NEED to get away from - the oil companies - in an “Epic Fail” of global proportions. In addition, many of the assimilated will likely sell their plasma, craigslist their pets, forego eating, and cash in their children's college savings to keep pumping the good 'ol petrol into their SUV's before mounting a bicycle. For cyclists advocating better environs and facilities to promote cycling - these same oil companies have infested all of our other avenues historically allowing “free” society to affect change, such as the mass media and most levels of government. 

Maybe Wells was predicting the future when he wrote “When the Sleeper Awakes.” It’s premise envisioned “a vast political and economic order that spans the entire world” where “the classes have become more and more separated” leading eventually to an inevitable set up where “the people of the world prepare to stage a revolt against the “White Council” that has its grip on society.” Hmm. Following many current events that sounds pretty prophetic to me.

I would propose to start this revolt by riding a bike. Ride it in the street. Ride it safely following the established rules of the road. Ride it to work. If you can’t ride it to work the entire way - bring it part way, park, and ride it the rest of the way. Ride it in organized events. Ride with friends and family. Help get your non-riding friends on bikes. The revolution won’t be motorized, folks. This I truly believe. Time to ride.


Ride To Work from Nicolas Lambert on Vimeo.


Riding a bike can be summed up succinctly by quoting Elizabeth West, from Hovel in the Hills: 

“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became.  Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others.”