Life's Greatest Freedom

As many of you may know by now, I am a bike commuter. Every morning my routine involves shouldering my backpack of clothes, lunch, and shower gear and mounting one of two cycles to begin my morning commute. Every morning I see the same people, I stop at the same stoplights, and I pass the same "morning walkers". I rarely differ from my route, rolling down fourth street to Pike and gliding along Pike Street to the Wal-Mart entrance, at which point I begin to "mix it up" with morning traffic. Bleary-eyed semi-truck drivers and disgruntled, late plant workers aside, I have a very pleasant cruise each morning before setting foot in my office and beginning the day.
I often get questions like "Why do you do that to yourself?" or "Aren't you afraid someone will hit you?". Others say, "Must be saving a ton of gas!" or "I could never do that." My answers can all be distilled down to this one fact: I love riding. I love the feel of moving under my own power, the freedom to go where I like and as far as I like. I like knowing and being confident in my abilities to intermingle with traffic unscathed or beat my coworkers to the office/home, having left at the same time as them. I love the feel of a smooth road under my road bike tires, and a fast, windy trail on my mountain bike.

I am saving a ton of gas and I am staying in riding shape in the process, but that isn't my motivation. I could drive to work like everyone else, but what would be the point. In a day and age when we hear more about global warming and shrinking oil reserves, I could say I want to set an example for what we should all be willing to do in order to lessen our consumption of valuable (and oft overpriced) resources. I could say that I am boycotting gas or point out that I only live four miles from my office, which is closer than most New Yorkers live to their offices yet New York is known as "the walking city". And while all that might be true, it isn't the deciding factor for why I am a bike commuter.

I ride because I can, I ride because I love it, and I ride to inspire others. A guy I work with, that has multiple health problems, actually took up cycling because he saw me every day on the way to work. He is twelve pounds lighter and much healthier today because he is a cyclist.

I know the economy is shaky, we are all unsure what lies ahead for our President-elect, and it seems everything in life is "suspect" at this point, but I know one other thing too: I start and end my day doing something I love that costs me nothing and noone can take away from me. What greater freedom is there?