Washington Republican state representative Ed Orcutt says “You would be giving off more CO2 if you are riding a bike than driving in a car.”

Orcutt has a science degree and used to work in forestry management, so he’s gotta be right, eh?

Personally, I get tired of hearing my fellow car drivers whine when they see non-car infrastructure being built. A new parkway was completed near my home and the biggest complaint I hear is that it’s only two lanes for cars and has a walk/bike path next to it. Apparently everyone complaining expected a superhighway! (But refuse the government money to build the superhighway – go figure.)But come spring and these same folks will think that they deserve the bike path and embrace it as local “quality of life.” Before it opened people regularly used it, and even in these cold temperatures I see people walking and biking.

I was disappointed (but not at all surprised) when a local railroad extension was defeated when it was revealed that it would require a toll on a perpetually jammed highway (The train route is planned to parallel that same highway.). “Why should we pay for a train?” was the cry from motorists (forgetting about the frustration in traffic so bad that a couple of years ago someone committed suicide after shooting at another in a road rage incident on that same road!) Clearly these same people forgot that for every passenger on the train it was one less car on that same highway – a mighty benefit to them – and speaking for someone who used to drive that road – worth paying for!

Years ago when I used to raise money for universities I was involved in a project for “campus greening.” Students and faculty alike couldn’t stop their chorus over how “there are better things to do with the money” like higher faculty salaries or more financial aid – both worthy, for sure. But once it was done, they all acted like they deserved it and were behind it from the start. They would show it off to their friends and use it as a tool to recruit more and better students and faculty (thus better salaries and more financial aid.)

Bikes and other transit are not “fringe” or “medicine” or “only for poor people” but real solutions to oil dependency and economic growth. Tell them that these are national security issues – which they are.

Sorry for my rant. Have fun, learn a lot and when you visit Congress, tell ‘em the truth!

…Matt

It’s worth considering the people who will never not drive their car to work but might ride their bike into town on the weekend. It’s the people who buy a bike on a whim but never feel like they get a chance to ride because of all the reasons it’s hard to ride. And if these people felt like they could safely traverse the distance from their home/neighborhood to the funky district with the cool restaurant they’ve been meaning to try, and they did it on their bikes. Wait till next weekend!