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MICK BAILEY, 29
Occupation: Graphic designer
Daily commute: Highlands to Westside (8 miles)
When I first started commuting by bike, I would get folks yelling and buzzing me all the time. Now they've stopped yelling. No close calls, though. The funniest thing about it is the way almost all motorists interact with cyclists. A car will book it by you really fast only to have to slam on the brakes for traffic. Then, as a cyclist, you catch up and scoot right by.
If I'm biking home in 90-degree heat, I'm not bummin' on drinking too much. Plus, I live in a great neighborhood with interesting people. I like that I feel more a part of the community. I see people I know everywhere, and it's super easy to step off my bike and say, "What's up?"
PORSCHA JOHNSON, 21
Occupation: Personal cook, volunteer, radio DJ
Daily commute: "All over" west downtown Atlanta, around Northside Drive (10 miles)
I started biking because I initially didn't have a car. Walking wasn't getting me there fast enough. And let's face it: You can only get so far on MARTA. I later got a car and realized you pay a price for its convenience: traffic. Oh, and money. Lots of that. Boo. Parking, gas, maintenance, car notes, I'm so over it. So I'm back in the city, hopefully for good, using the best gas in town: That Porscha Petro, get some. (laughs)
If you want to commute, just do it. Don't make excuses. Yes, you're gonna sweat. No, it doesn't make you less attractive if you're a girl. Frankly, the more ladies the better; it's kind of a sausage fest if you know what I mean. You'll save more, do more and live more.
KYLE TOROK, 31
Occupation: State employee
Daily commute: Toco Hills to downtown Atlanta (14 miles round-trip)
My decision to start commuting germinated with a mix of environmental consciousness and miserly frugality, and took root as the best, most exciting means to explore the city. Now driving seems utterly wasteful; even, to a point, arrogant. I have never regretted ditching my car.
Any advice? Be confident but don't go into it blindly. Ask lots of questions and speak to others who bicycle for transportation, not just recreation or sport. Study your would-be route, or routes, and take some dry runs. And wear regular clothes. Never assume you need to don peacock-colored skin suits to go somewhere. Unless you are an acrobat, in which case: suit up.
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Commuting by C.S.- Commuter Stations... First time using modified Map, GPS, and Guided navigation system... Heli-Vacs might use the modified system... A S.B.- Signal Button. All at the commuter station, the signal is followed by the Redesigned Command Module in cars. Robotics has the Commands. Left out is Deisel motors, those need the Commands placed in the dash-board. Commuter Station navigation allowance, for guided vehicles... avoidance/ Go programs only...only.
In conjunction with Commuter Stations is the R.H.S satellites-Roads Highways Streets... all you is input about the width of your Traffic ways... deminsions would be the last to operate with... keep updated!!!
It's funny how this comment: "Now driving seems utterly wasteful; even, to a point, arrogant," makes him come off as super arrogant. I think people wouldn't mind bike riders as much if they didn't have this lame ass better than thou attitude.
I'm not a biker, but he is right. Relative to using resources to get to work or the store the biker is better than the car driver. Driving around the way we do in a half ton of steel is utterly wasteful. Is it arrogant to state a fact? And how can one recognize that a particular biker is one of the arrogant ones?
Is it guilt that causes some motorists to unnecessarily lash out at bikers? I've heard several stories of motorists who go out of their way to threaten, sometimes hitting, bikers with their vehicles.
Is that why this happens?
Knowing Kyle, it is not arrogance, but pride in the ability to be able to move oneself across one end of Atlanta to another on your own power. I do it all the time and I love it.
I too enjoy riding and wish I didn't have a need for a car. And I am extremely cautious of bikers and respect their need for the road. But that statement is just dumb. Can you please tell me how my arrogant self is supposed to attach my newborn baby to my bicycle so I won't be so wasteful? Or protect myself from getting raped as I cycle home from work though the Bluffs? It was just not the best way to put it. Not trying to start a fight. Just a better statement would have been to say "Now driving seems utterly wasteful (period)"
Blobby Jones, it wasn't a critique of all drivers, but of my driving. Realizing I do not need to drive, it would be wasteful and indeed arrogant of me to return to it. Why pump that pollution out, why spend that money, why further clog Atlanta's arteries if I don't need to?
I realize there are mobility issues for which motor vehicles are useful. It's unsafe to put a child in a bike trailer before 1 year old: that is a problem other cyclists and car-free families have sweated. My mom and ex-wife suffer from auto-immune disorders. They have rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, respectively, and walking, let alone riding bikes (which they both love and sorely miss), is painful and difficult. For them, a one-mile bike trip on flat ground is nearly impossible.
But, really, the true villain here is Thomas Wheatley, who must have misheard me, as I believe the actual quote was, "Wheats, watch me pop this bitchin' wheelie!" Full disclosure: I admit the wheelie was less than bitchin'.
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