Hang Ups

"Is it realistic to think that, at a time when the residents of Beijing are hanging up their bicycles for cars by the thousands every day, that our residents are going to hang up their cars for bicycles en masse?" -- Lon Anderson, managing director of AAA Mid Atlantic, complaining about what he calls "the war on motorists" as the District of Columbia expands its network of bike lanes.

It's not realistic at all. At all.

An observation: among my 6 co-workers, two of us are white guys, the other four are from Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and India respectively. The only two people who ride bicycles are Kevin and I, the two white guys. We are, without a doubt, the fattest of the six. My Vietnamese coworker drives a Sequoia every day from Elk Grove, the first Indian a Camry every day from Fairfield, the Bangladeshi an Accord from Natomas, and the last Indian an Accord from halfway to Marysville. The four immigrants have never, never even once, ridden a bicycle while here in the U.S. Kevin and I, the native Americans, commute by bicycle somewhat regularly to work.

I do not have to visit Beijing to know what is going on there -- I see my own small work group as a microcosm of the rest of the world -- the rest of the world is rapidly adopting the perpetual motoring mantra of the U.S. and the moment the bicycle is hung from the rafters it's never to come back down. Educated U.S. immigrants provide a glimpse into where the rest of the world is heading -- down the road.

Oil spills or not, dead pelicans or not, $2.80 or $8.20 gasoline, we cannot and will not change our perpetual motoring culture in my opinion. We will sacrifice all to sustain this unsustainable practice, to our detriment methinks. The rest of the world will follow us down that road; or perhaps, it will be us following the rest of the world down that road. The lure of the private motor vehicle is too strong, and we've vested all in our suburban housal unit living arrangements. We cannot envision a different world and thus we don't. If gasoline rises to $8.20, fuck the pelicans -- our need to perpetually motor trumps all.