Chima's Relationship to Cycling

My relationship with cycling is a very general question to ask me. Cycling to me takes on so many connotations. I could fondly remember as a younger individual Lance Armstrong and his many Tour-de-France victories, lifting the United States to worldwide fame in the arena of cycling. I have spent a great deal of my transporation history utilizing bikes as a means of transportation. I could remember as a young boy going to ride my bicycle in the BART parking lot in Oakland, California during the late 1990’s. Then again, later in my life, I remember riding my bike to my high school from 10-12th grade on most school days. I did this for many reasons. I remember that I did this because it was faster than walking and cheaper than taking public transportation. Additionally, I had to ride my bicycle to school because I could not get a ride from my parents, because they had to go to work. It was a great experience. From the late 1990’s until 2003, I did not ride my bicycle. This has to do with the fact that I was going through rough times, and I was riding my scooter. In March 2003, I moved from Oakland to Antioch, a suburb in the East Bay. I remember that I had to relearn how to ride my bike. From that period until Fall 2006 when I started 10th grade, I only rode my bike for aesthetic purposes, not for anything important. After riding my bicycle from 2006-2009 to go to school, I started to understand the importance of cycling. I admit that I did not really worry about, or really knew about the carbon footprint that I avoided by choosing to ride bikes over drive a vehicle or take public transportation. Also, I realized how healthy it was to ride bikes, because the human being became the engine, making the human being excercise by pedaling. I had to move to Tracy, California on June 26, 2009, after completing high school, this also affected my relationship with cycling. I remember that when I was riding my bike, I ran over sharp objects, my tire became flat, and I had to get my tube replaced over and over again. It got to a point that in the late summer of 2010, I had to stop riding my bike, partly because I officially received my driver’s licence on July 27, 2010. Because of this, I had to focus more on driving, because I had to travel farther I distances in order to get to school. I have not ridden a bicycle since at least 2010. I still have a positive relationship with cycling despite all of those setbacks. I am expecting to ride a bike sometime in the new future because I am in a class titled Sustainable Transportation. I now understand that when one chooses to ride a bike over drive a motorized vehicle, they reduce the carbon footprint.

Hasti's Transportation History

Write your transportation history - Think about the various modes of transportation that you've used in your life at different times and places. How do your experiences with these modes affect your perception of the world, your community, etc.? Have you had pivotal moments on buses, bike rides, car trips, etc. that have changed how you see the world?

Sitting in the backseat as a child during my pre-drivers license days, I remember watching the world go by and observing the different people in their cars going all sorts of places. It fascinated me that there were so many cars filled with individuals in transit with their own destination in mind. Although I was observing the outside environment, I was unaware of the infrastructure encompassing all these vehicles. It wasn't until I obtained my driver’s license that I became conscious of the legalities and logistics of our roads. I looked at each vehicle in a whole new way and better understood the responsibilities of being a driver.

But before I earned my driver’s license, I was dependent on someone else to drop me off and pick me up from the places I wanted to go. Riding public transportation in the Bay Area for the first time forced me to figure out how the Caltrain and BART systems worked. From each stop, I learned more about the geography of the area. Public transportation in the Bay Area is that is fairly inefficient though. Most of the time, it requires more than one mode of transportation to get somewhere. Someone would have to drop you off at the Caltrain station and then you take the Caltrain all the way to the Millbrae Station to switch onto the BART. A major limitation of public transportation is that it is not always there right when you need it.

Bicycling helped me gain independence because I could hop on my bike and head to a local spot at any time. I could fuel the bicycle with my own energy and was on my own schedule. Currently, bicycling is my main method of transport in Santa Cruz. When I tell people that I don’t have my car in Santa Cruz they usually respond sympathetically as if I’m missing out. In a car, encased by metal, you are isolated from the world, whereas on a bike you are exploring and engaging with the environment. It’s actually relieving to not have my car here with me because I prefer biking around town. I don’t have to buy gas, I don’t get stuck in congested traffic, and I don’t have trouble finding parking. I love the scenic routes, the fresh air, and accelerating my heart rate.