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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why not take the bus or drive a car to work and bike for exercise on a bike path or in your basement???!!![/quote]

The bus is inconvenient.   Driving is costly and polluting.  It saves me time to combine my commute and my exercise, and its the best part of my day.

[/quote]

Agreed.  I leave on my own schedule, and can detour if there’s car traffic backed up.  It’s also flexible so I can deviate from a route easily.  That said, I do take the bus/metro when I don’t feel like biking.  You can also bus/bike combo or bike/metro when it’s not crowded on the metro.

[b]Bikes are really the ultimate freedom in a city.[/b][/quote]

Yep. The freedom run red lights.

The freedom to blow through stop signs.

The freedom to go the wrong way against traffic.

The freedom to knock over pedestrians in crosswalks who are crossing with the light.

The freedom to smash vehicles with your bike lock if they get within arm's reach.

The freedom to ride on the sidewalk, weaving between walkers, scaring them out of your way.

The freedom to trap everyone else on the road behind you as you take the lane going uphill.

The freedom not to bound by any traffic laws whatsoever, yet still call yourself a victim when you wind up under a car because you entered an intersection from a redlight at 20 mph.

Yep, bikes are the ultimate freedom. From accountability.

[/quote]

Wow, it’s crazy how different that is than my experience.  I stop at red lights and for stop signs.  I don’t go the wrong way on one way streets. I rarely ride on the sidewalk and only when there are no pedestrians or almost none.  Think: Michigan/Irving by the Washington Hospital Center.  I give pedestrians a wide berth and defer to them even when they jaywalk.  I’ve never hit a pedestrian or smashed a car with anything.

And I’m still free.

I don’t get stuck in traffic.  You know, like when your buddies block the box and cause gridlock.  I don’t clog up the streets when parking and don’t have to worry about where to park or how much it will cost.  I don’t have to call a tow truck when my bike has a mechanics issue and it costs me less than $100 to fix, not thousands.  I get good exercise and can talk to friends or friendly strangers.  I don’t worry about the price of gas or repairs breaking my budget.  I don’t have a monthly car payment because a decent bike is pretty inexpensive.

All the complaints you have about bicyclists are reasonable.  I wish everyone biked responsibly.  But if I had one wish only, I would wish that car drivers drove safely and responsibly.  Because car drivers are the ones killing and injuring people all over the place.  They are the ones causing congestion in our city and polluting our air.[/quote]

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