I just want to ride my bicycle!

How car troubles have been the ultimate gift in disguise

A few months ago I discovered my car needed some pretty significant repairs. I have a Honda Element that has 213,000 miles on it, and while she’s still running well, all things considered, I decided my money would be better spent on a newer car. So I started the hunt, scouring Carvana and checking out local dealerships’ inventories daily. If you haven’t heard, the used car market is, well, currently screwed. If you want a car with 100K miles or less, you’re spending upwards of $17,000-20,000. I realistically could probably afford the payment. And… I simply don’t want to. If anything, purely on principle – the greedy price-gouging dealers are currently doing sickens me. I’ve heard predictions that the used car market probably won’t “balance out” for years.

I know a few people in Boulder who are car-free, but it just never seemed very do-able to me. Without access to a reliable car, though, I began opening my mind to alternatives.

Around this time I chatted with a friend’s husband, both of whom are from Sweden, and he remarked how bizarre Americans are when it comes to fitness and transportation. “They will drive to work and then drive to a gym to run on a treadmill when you can just walk outside or ride your bike to work and get exercise that way.”

I knew he was right, and I thought I want to ride my bike everywhere… but it just feels daunting. Side note: Those friends recently moved to San Francisco, where he bike commutes 40 minutes each way most days.

I mapped out the main places I frequent, which, on paper, was actually extremely manageable via bike. From my house:

• art studio (about 5 miles – and uphill both ways *gulp*)

• climbing gym (3 miles)

• coffeeshop I work at 1-2 days per week (2 miles)

• friends’ places (all within 3 miles)

So I started riding my janky $20 Craigslist bicycle bit by bit. To the gym, which before would’ve seemed crazy to me – to exercise on my way to and from the place where I exercise. But my body adjusted and I actually felt myself becoming healthier and more energetic. To my friends’ places, along the way discovering hidden pathways I didn’t know existed and little community gardens and cafes I’d overlooked in the past while blurring by in my car. The days I didn’t ride my bike I started craving it – the dopamine hit of cruising down hills and maneuvering around turns, the sun on my skin, and the feeling of my legs and lungs being tired, in a good way, at the end of the day.

It’s a different pace and way of life. It’s a bit slower and requires a bit more effort and planning, but, in my opinion, it’s way less stressful and way more life-giving. The times I drive around town now, my temper shortens and I feel that rushed-ness that I just don’t get when I am on my bike. 

Still, I don’t feel quite ready to go totally car-free. One specific fear I have is how it will be commuting by bike in the winter. Thankfully I live on a bus line directly from my neighborhood to my studio, so that is always an option, but I wonder if on those cold, windy winter days I will opt for my car (if it still works, lol). I could also see the opposite happening – investing in winter gear and feeling an even greater rush of dopamine by getting fresh air during the months I’m typically more indoors. (Any tips for winter bike commuting totally welcome, by the way.)

I also feel more connected to my community. Cars are insular. It’s all too easy to follow your same routines and see the same people and the same things every day. By riding my bike and taking public transportation, I open my daily life up to other people and situations. It’s given me a greater appreciation for the people who live and work in this town, a place I’ve often called privileged and a “monoculture.” I am now humbly and somewhat embarrassingly realizing it isn’t just that. While Boulder is full of many rich, white, privileged people, there are folks from other walks of life who reside and work here, too. Consequently, I feel more involved in and compelled to learn about and participate in local issues that not only affect me, as a low-income resident of Boulder, but others as well who may be facing different challenges.

Not to mention, it’s freaking fun. I’m realizing how much I actually enjoy living in a city center, even though Boulder feels like a small town. This experience has clarified for me that I want to continue living in more densely populated, walkable, bikeable and public-transportation-oriented communities. In a way, it’s given renewed energy to my life here in Boulder. I can bike to meet a friend for happy hour in 10 minutes. I can wander downtown and stop into bookstores and coffee shops. Even though a car gives you freedom, in a way, something about biking makes me feel even freer. There are no parking meters to monitor, no gas tanks to fill, no check engine lights to fear.

On a related note, Colorado has recently begun an e-bike incentive program. In fact, four other states (Maine, Vermont, Washington, and Minnesota) have announced new e-bike incentive programs this year. You can apply for a voucher based on income and enter a randomized lottery system to win assistance buying an e-bike from a local shop. And just this month, I won! Last week I got a Momentum Voya E+ 3 electric bike. And oh my gosh, is it fun. And easy! I did my first commute to the studio this week. It took me about 30 minutes of casual peddling and I didn’t even break a sweat.

Riding my bicycle has changed my life. It’s made my day-to-day experience so full of joy, which has definitely overflowed into my creativity as well. I’ve always been concerned with my ecological footprint and the climate crisis, but something about biking has infused my outlook with a little bit of positivity and hope in a time that feels deeply helpless. I’ve been turned onto podcasts, subreddits, and new concepts, like “solarpunk” – a literary and artistic movement that envisions and works toward actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community – all of which have captured my imagination and attention.

Some related and not-so-related things that have inspired me lately:

• Podcast: The War on Cars episode with Nick Offerman – Protect this man at all costs

• Subreddit: R/fuckcars – Just the right amount of rage

• Subreddit: R/nolawns – Not bike-related but found via R/solarpunk

• Artist: Agnes Denes and her environmental “reclamation art” like “Tree Mountain: A Living Time Capsule”