This is an actual question that somebody asked me. A person who I consider to be a fellow environmentalist and climate activist.
She seemed to view me as being somehow more vulnerable than a person who depends on a car.
As is one of my bad habits (that I am working on changing), I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t respond properly.
So, long long time later, I am writing this out in case some of you might find it helpful.
I am not out to chastise people for getting around by car. Especially in the USA, things are set up in a manner that virtually forces automobile ownership on people.
I could berate my fellow members of the mainstream environmental movement for not being more of a force for public transportation and walkability. So many of us just rolled over and moved to the suburbs — especially suburbs that had that attractive veneer of a “nature preserve” — and in so many other ways bought into the car-dependent lifestyle lock, stock, and barrel. But what’s done is done; no use in my continuing to be upset about this. We just have to try to move forward.
I hope that a lot of us, as we move into our elder years, are smart enough to want to stop driving. If not for our own sake, then for the sake of our families and the people around us.
(On that note, in my capacity as an eldercare and end-of-life Doula, I strongly encourage everybody to make a transportation plan that will take you into old age without you having to count on being able to drive a car. There are lots of ways to accomplish this. As just two examples: You could move to a more walkable / public-transport-served location. Or you could try to get a younger relative or other housemate to move in with you, and provide transportation / errand-running as part of their rent.)
But anyway! This post is about what would I do if something happens to my bicycle?
• It’s not IF; it’s WHEN. Same as it’s not if but when something happens to your car. Transportation breaks down. Things have “happened” to my bicycle many times. Mainly flat tires. What do you do when your car breaks down? Your list of responses would probably overlap in many cases with mine. Except at least in my case I don’t have to pay a towing service.
• In the event of a breakdown on the road: I walk home. Or catch a bus home. For rare emergencies, when I really can’t walk or catch a bus, I call my neighbor who is a young single mom who I pay to be my taxi. If she’s not available, I call an actual taxi (or Uber etc.). This is only ever happened once in my entire life. That I actually had to call a taxi because my bicycle broke down.
• If I’m already home, and my bicycle is just out of commission, there are many alternatives:
— I can decide not to go out
— I can catch a ride with someone else who’s going to the event
— I can walk, if time & distance permit
— I can take public transportation
— If it’s really far, I can rent a car (something I have done on more than one occasion)
— Or, I can turn it into a fun outing and invite a friend who might not otherwise go, and I can treat them to a nice lunch or something
— I can do a rideshare (Craigslist used to be a lot better for ridesharing than it is now, but it’s still at least a secondary option)
— I can hitch a ride with a motorist who’s going the same way (not something I advise “civilians” to do, but I have done it and it’s been more than fine; and if, like me, you belong to a subculture where people are used to depending on “strangers,” you have probably used this option on occasion as well)
Basically, in a nutshell, I have found, as a person who is not dependent on automobile ownership, that my responses to transportation breakdown are typically much more flexible than a car owner’s. I haven’t gathered data on this, but from the social-media feeds of my friends, it’s apparent that people’s lives tend to be completely derailed, and their schedules go on hold, the minute their car breaks down. For somebody who doesn’t have a car, that isn’t the case.
Also, you will never see me alone by a roadside in the dead of night having to wait next to a broken-down vehicle for roadside help because somebody might steal the car or trash it if I leave it. Or because I might get a ticket for abandoning my vehicle.
Rather, as a car-free individual, I have more than once chained up my bicycle to a road sign, and come back the next day or so to deal with it. (Of course you might not feel comfortable doing that if you have a super expensive bicycle. But most of us who cycle for transportation rather than just recreation don’t have a super expensive bicycle. That would just be too much of a liability.)
So, that’s the very unexciting answer to the question “what will you do if something happens to your bicycle.”
The bigger issue is, Why do people who own cars continue to feel like they are somehow safer and less vulnerable and better off than those of us who are free of car ownership? This despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, including wallet-based evidence. Something worth pondering.
If I sound cranky, it’s because the person who asked me this question was somehow wanting to view me as a “poor baby” or needful of other people’s extra attention and worry because I own no car. (Meanwhile I virtually duct-taped my mouth shut to avoid asking her when she plans to give up her car keys and/or move to a less car-dependent place, as she (like me) is no spring chicken.)
A sobering thought to end this: Any mode of transportation can break down. Including our own legs and feet. Your mileage may vary (pun intended), but you might find it helpful to plan how you would get around if you suddenly became unable to walk. I had this experience a couple years ago when one of my knees was injured. I wasn’t totally unable to walk, but I couldn’t walk very far, and I had to plan around it. I was still able to get around by bicycle so that was good.
And another time, I injured my lower back, so it became very difficult to ride my bicycle. But I was still able to walk, so I switched to walking as a main mode of transport for a while. And, I switched to Zoom as my main mode of meetings, but I had been going in that direction anyway.
The important thing is to be creative and flexible, and know your options. And never feel like you are stuck just because one mode of transportation breaks down.
In the next post I will answer another question that often gets thrown at me as a weirdo who has the gall not to own a car.
PS. I just recalled one of the very few times in my life when I have actually needed a ride and it seemed like I would not be able to get one. And that was when I needed to go to the emergency room after a skin wound on my leg got dangerously infected. I didn’t feel well enough to ride my bicycle the couple of miles to the hospital. Finally, a stranger on the NextDoor app ended up offering me a ride. And wouldn’t you know, it turns out that this “stranger” and I were connected via a fellow activist who lives in another state! One example of why I often put the word “stranger” in quotes.