By Dan Rodricks
David Schapiro has a message for anyone, including other SUV owners, thinking about taking a bicycle to work: Don’t dismiss the idea without giving it a try. There are plenty of excuses for scoffing – you’re too old and rickety; you live too far away; it’s too dangerous to bike; you’ll shvitz too much – but, Schapiro says, a little common sense, combined with some open-mindedness and positive energy, can get you there.
Or at least get you home again.
Schapiro lives in Roland Park, on the north side of Baltimore, and he works in Hunt Valley. He doesn’t drive his Land Rover much anymore. He uses a combination of the bike and light rail to get to work each morning. He takes the bike all the way home in the evening. Schapiro started biking three years ago. He was overweight, pushing 375 pounds, with a 49-inch waist. He wanted to be "fit at 50." He’s lost 80 pounds since then, and his waist is between 38 and 40 inches now.
Last summer, he started "biking in earnest," and he became determined to find a way to get to work on two wheels.
Of course, in the Baltimore metropolitan region, and pretty much throughout the United States, biking is considered something that only the fit and sports-minded do – and primarily a weekend recreational activity. It’s not considered an element of the transportation system. Few people who have the most opportunity – the estimated 53 percent of us who live within 2 miles of public transportation, for instance – ever give it a try.
"Bicycling and walking typically account for one-fourth to one-half of all personal trips in European cities," says the Federal Highway Administration. "This stands in sharp contrast to the United States, where the share of personal trips made by non-motorized means fell in recent decades to less than 10 percent."
Clearly, things are starting to change.
Continue reading “Try on a new set of wheels”
