November will mark the second year of my adult life without an automobile. I’ve biked 1,700 miles just commuting to work alone. The simple analysis: it’s been awesome. Last year, I commented on all of the obvious benefits of bicycling such as health, spending more time outdoors, being environmentally friendly, saving money, and not taking traveling for granted. This year I want to get more political about the whole thing. Maybe two years is just giving me a chip on the shoulder, so bear with me as I share my viewpoints with you.

First, I want to discuss again how easy it is to survive without a car. Some advice on what to NOT say to a cyclist commuter: "That’s great but with my _____ (fill in the blank with job, family, schedule, etc.), I could never go without my car". Please don’t say those words out loud. You CHOOSE to keep your car. Biking is so easy that only choice (or physical impairment) could keep you from doing it. The majority of people in St. Augustine are within a 10 minute or less bike ride of food. If it’s important to them, people can easily move close enough to where they work. Bicycle maintenance is also very easy to learn, because it’s mostly common sense.

What gets me on my bike everyday is something different than the benefits listed above, although all of those are abundantly true. It’s like I wrote to my brother who may have to go to Iraq in January, "I get on my bike everyday for you. For the infantry. In order to not support corporate oil monopolies. To not rely on other countries’ resources, to not exploit mother earth". I understand that hatred won’t get people on their bicycles so I want to stress that I love my brother and don’t want him to have to go overseas and possibly never return just so I can easily fill my car’s gas tank. I’ll take my brother over a car. I’ll take young people in my community that I don’t even know currently being recruited for war over a car any day.

Exxon Mobil raked in $10 billion in profits last quarter from America. That’s profit, not sales, in just three months. The companies manipulate the public just enough to stop them from organizing mass transit systems, just enough to stop you from biking, just enough to stop you from carpooling. Of course, the auto industry is always one of the top advertising industries. Think of how many ads the public has to be bombarded with in order to maintain the insanity. Every other industry has endured major technological progress except for autos. Sure your brats can play video games while the car is the perfect climate through an a/c blasting but it still uses gas. Still, each gallon only gets you so far. Still, the fuel to run the car is the same. And still, after all of these years, the basic structure of a motor hasn’t changed all that much. That’s nothing compared to, for example, how huge a computer was in 1980 and how little it could do compared to today.

I guess I’m just frustrated with people who complain so much about the war in Iraq, urban sprawl, hummers, gas prices, and oil monopolies yet can’t make some simple changes in their lifestyle to stop contributing to the problem. Your car get 30mpg? So what! Does that mean you’re responsible for less murders and environmental destruction than a SUV driver? Is that the point — to not kill as many people? Less war but still war? Again, you’ve got to love your fellow man enough to stop. Love the natural world that has kept you alive and provided beauty enough and you simply won’t drive. If you love your community enough, then you can surely stop. If nothing else just think of how great a feeling it is to catch up to a redneck in a big truck who just yelled at you to get a car and explain to him that you bike for the troops, for the earth, for America, damn it!

In the last CP issue some folks encouraged you to flick off a Hummer. I will second that. You may ask why not Expeditions or Suburbans or Yukons also? I’d say go for it— if your finger is strong enough to flick off that many cars. But the Hummer is ultimately only a symbol. Just as going after Nike or Wal- Mart doesn’t mean that Reebok or Kmart are great companies. It’s that going after the top dog is (1) easier, and (2) if we can break the spell and bring down the top company then the others know they are next and better get their act together. If we can’t get people to stop assembling, selling, fixing, and driving an automobile as worthless as a Hummer, then we’ve lost. And it’s not about taking away citizens’ rights, not giving them a choice — it’s about not wanting citizens that care so little or are so uneducated in our country at all, period.

There are big questions to ask yourself. Would you be willing to work a job that pays less? To maybe not live exactly where you want? To not be able to get across town in a couple of minutes? It all depends. Is your job important enough to justify murder, is your house location important enough to justify raping the earth, is your convenience more important than your community? So get on your bike! For my brother, for the earth, for me, for your wallet, but mainly, for yourself. This is sooo much easier than you think. I only used my bike for a leisure ride on the beach a couple times a year before I sold my car. You will be amazed at how much easier it is than you expected. So carpool, lobby for transit, start biking one day a week and slowly expand to everyday, and stop buying crap from gas station convenience stores (gas hardly makes them any money, their profit is inside the store). For me, its been two years but the other great thing about a riding bike and not fossil fuels — I can keep this up for thirty more years.