Pedal Power Push Proposed

Mighk Wilson (yeah, he spells it Mighk, apparently), bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for Metroplan Orlando, wrote an article in the Orlando Sentinel to discuss the steps that might be taken to reduce our nation's reliance on gasoline and foreign oil, and naturally his first thought was bicycling.

It only makes sense, obviously - but you won't believe some of the ways it actually DOES make sense, like the Norwegian study that says every dollar put into bicycle infrastructure improvement is recouped threefold in lack of health care costs, due to people actually being in shape from riding.

Most of the article is taken up with what might need to be done for bicycles to be more accepted as transportation and not recreation, which only makes sense as the world is set up for gas guzzling and not pedal-pushing.

It also makes a great point that is lost on many people who read about solutions to sprawl, global climate change, energy security, etc.: bicycling is not being pushed as THE answer. There is not going to be ONE answer. Bicycling is only part of the solution to this problem, obviously. Not everyone is going to be able to ride a bike everywhere. I don't ride my bike everywhere. I just ride it as often as I can. Some people can't ride because of a lack of ability. Some just have to go too far. Some need more cargo space than a bike can give. But I'm going to guess that MOST people could use a bike for most of their errands.

Read the article. Wilson just makes good sense.