Why go car free?

Cars and the roads that accomodate them do tremendous damage to our beautiful planet, not to mention the huge amount of oil resources that are wasted. When you bike, skate, walk you have a more intimate contact with the world and the people in it. You can save a ton of money by not driving. You no longer have to worry about car payments, gas, insurance and repairs. Riding your bike is one of the best sources of exercise, which also causes you to sleep better at night. Riding and paying bus fare helps those people who cannot afford a car anyway. The more people use buses, the more money gets put into new bus routes and nicer buses. You can tell some really funny stories about things that happen on the bus. Like the time I was on the bus and two girls dressed as Pokemon characters got on. And it wasn't Halloween. Biking is more fun! Biking to Santa Rosa from Sebastopol is much more relaxing and enjoyable than driving in a hot old car. Parking is super easy on a bike...and you don't get nasty parking tickets. You never get stuck in a traffic jam on a bicycle. Reducing the time you spend in your car makes life more simple, and less frustrating. Cars are dangerous to people and other critters. More than 40,000 people die in the USA each year as a result of automobile accidents. If you really feel the need to talk on a cell phone, its safe to do so while riding a bus. Not so while driving a car. Commuting on public transport gives you time to think, read, write letters, catch up on school work, meet the people around you, nap or just totally space out. You will get more good thinking done while riding a bike than while driving a car. Take our word for it. The more we keep driving cars, the more we'll keep fighting wars for oil.

"Let 'em ride a bike like me, would do me and them and everybody a world of good. Cleanse our city's air, reinvigorate the blood, tone up the muscles, strengthen the heart, burn up that surplus fat, stave off arteriosclerosis, cut down on bypass operations, eliminate transplants, lower the cholesterol count, prolong lives. Yes, and reduce oil consumption, slow down the waste of steel and rubber and copper and glass, free human labor and engineering skills for important work - anything bad for the auto industry and bad for the oil industry is bound to be good for America, good for human beings, good for the land.

Bicycles are sustainable wonders because of what they don't do to the world. A bicyclist's breathing (the closest a bike comes to exhaust) doesn't acidify the rain or kill people with carbon monoxide and particulates; neither does it alter the global climate. A bicyclist fuels up on carbohydrates, not fossil fuels and imported oil. Bicycles don't cause traffic jams or require paving over whole landscapes at the expense of croplands, government coffers, and livable neighborhoods. And bicycles are not the leading killer of Americans and Canadians 2 to 24 years old, or worldwide, of men 15 to 44 years old. That distinction is reserved for the automobile."

~ John C. Ryan, Seven Wonders