Bicycles an Easy Part of the Environmental Fix

Bicycles an Easy Part of the Environmental Fix

By GREG SIPLE

My drawing, seen here (no drawing found), was first published in the Missoulian 30 years ago. The bicycle continues to be one of the most efficient machines ever devised n just as quiet and easy to park today as it was in 1978. Bikes marketed today tend to be more rider-friendly, with the comforts of flat handlebars, shock-absorbers and wider tires n having moved away from the dropped handlebars and hard, narrow tires of the 1970s 10-speeds.

Motorized traffic in Missoula has increased dramatically since my drawing originally appeared in 1978. We Missoulians drive a startling 1.5 million miles per day. That’s more than 60 times around the Earth. Every one of those miles releases a pound of carbon dioxide into the Missoula airshed. We spend huge amounts of money on infrastructure to move our car traffic more efficiently. An installation of traffic lights like the ones at Orange Street and Broadway costs $250,000. Yet we often find ourselves idling in long lines at intersections and searching for parking spaces.

Thirty years ago, few of us paid attention to the situation with world oil reserves. Now, the finite nature of the supply is generally acknowledged. We are going to run out. The worldwide demand for energy continues to push up the price of gasoline. Some say the scramble for control of oil resources has led us to war. The increased cost of oil has, in turn, increased the cost of every other commodity. We have begun to convert cropland from food to fuel production.

In 1978, global warming and climate change were concepts unknown to the public. Today, they are constantly discussed and evaluated. The bicycle, as a tool of reversing environmental degradation, is more important than ever.

Although I am a strong advocate for bicycle use, I am not going to suggest that the motor vehicle be banished from Missoula’s roadways. Legitimate needs exist for motor vehicles to keep the city running. I will continue to buy food trucked into the city. I would hire someone to haul a 2,000-pound load of building materials by truck, rather than do it myself in 40 trips with a bicycle trailer. I would accept a ride in an ambulance if I had an accident. There is a long list of legitimate needs for motor vehicles in Missoula.

What I do suggest is that we can substantially reduce that million-and-a-half motor vehicle miles a day with the use of the bicycle. We don’t need a 3,500-pound vehicle to haul 10 pounds of groceries. We can easily carry a letter to the post office on a bike. Many of us can commute to work by bicycle. Most everyone can carry out some percentage of their transportation chores car-free. Perhaps we could shave 150,000 miles a day (10 percent) off our collective total with these short rides. Less motoring means less noise, less traffic congestion, more clean air for all of us, and the health benefits of exercise for those who bicycle.

Bicycling is much easier than a novice rider might expect. It is five times easier than walking. Missoula is, for the most part, flat, and it has a growing number of bicycle trails and bridges. A new rider will soon discover that 90 percent of car traffic is using only 10 percent of the streets. Bikers travel at 10 to 12 mph, while most Missoula streets post 25-mph speed limit signs. Accordingly, bicycle travel time is sometimes only twice that of a car, and saves roughly 50 cents a mile compared to what it costs to drive a car. All kinds of racks, baskets and trailers for carrying any kind of load are available at Missoula’s bike shops. Even for the beginner, riding two to four miles is a 15-minute piece of cake.

I understand that a few people will never consider riding a bicycle under any circumstance. But they should applaud those who do ride, and also support investment in public bicycle facilities such as trails and bridges. Bicyclists do not compete for fuel and parking spaces, and they shorten the lines of cars waiting for green at our intersections. In addition, more bicycle riding and less driving overall means less wear and tear on our roads, which extends the life of the pavement.

I don’t expect the Missoulian to run my cartoon for a third time in 2038. By then, we will have made a transition to more efficient means of transportation, including common use of the bicycle. Our relationship with, and dependency on, the automobile will have changed for the better, and dramatically. The question is: Are we going to gracefully adapt now or ignore the problems we’ve created until the solutions are painful?