I was
reading a post on a blog that I follow called Eco Cat Lady Speaks, and she did
a yearly wrap up on how many miles she put on her bike vs. how many miles she
put on her car. By bike I mean a real
bike, not a motorcycle, but one you have to pedal.
I was
shocked at how few miles she put on her car in one year, 668 miles! I probably
put that many miles on my car in a month! Yep, I figured it out and I put 800
miles per month on my car!
As to the
number of miles I put I my bike, well…that would be a bit fat zero since I don’t
even own a bike!
I make
myself feel better by telling myself that I do bring my own lunch to work
almost every day, thereby reducing the amount of miles I would be driving if I
went out into the world every day to hunt and gather my burger and fries right?
I’m hoping
one day to not have to commute as much, commuting is rough! Not just because of
the traffic and wear and tear on my car, but I figure with traffic it takes me
a half hour to get to work and a half hour to get home, meaning I lose an hour
of each day just sitting and driving.
The worst
part is that on the drive home I unwind and relax by listening to the radio and
by the time I get home I’ve lost any motivation I might have had to get home
and clean or cook or paint. I bet that if I lived a mile away from my job and I
walked to work, I would have tons of energy, after all…a body in motion stays
in motion.
I'm thinking a lot about the young ones, these days. They hardly walk. Until a few years ago most of them used to ride bicycles, the regular ones which require pedalling. Now that's over too; they've got electric ones.
ReplyDeleteWalking and cycling are very important to general health (no ladies, they don't help loosing weight, maybe preventing some little weight gain, which is fine).
Unlike the blogger mentioned by you, I don't buy my groceries at the shops near my home. I prefer to go to one of our three supermarkets which are about 25 minutes one way walk. To be honest, it's not for the walk but for the quality of products and prices, but I can't ignore the benefits of walking, or when possible, cycling (I've got a tricycle..).
There's a lot of talk about pollution, but I know of no one who would sacrifice his car for a cleaner and safer environment. So, that's just talk and hypocrisy.
We were just remarking on Christmas Day how when our kids were little on Christmas morning you would see all the neighborhood kids out riding their new bikes or skateboards and now you don't see anyone at all because they are all inside playing on their new video games/phones. We used to ride out bikes for hours when we were kids.
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely be a good thing if more people in my area of the world used their cars less, we have such a bad air pollution problem here in Kern County. Unfortunately as humans we are always trying to do things that are easier and less word.