At various times the bicycle has been intimately associated with women's liberation, white power, political sneakiness, Asian communism, sabotage and spying and other rebel mischief, the Viet Cong, European socialism, illegal immigrants, serial drunk drivers, anarchy, privilege, anti-car fanaticism, and multiple manifestations of youthful antiestablishment activism. The mishmash of historical symbolism is now woven into the collective subconscious of the nation. The bicycle is loaded.
He also says it tends to carry the big L for "liberal, leftist, loon".
...bicycling is in fact the most conservative of all vehicles--using one man's definition of conservative anyway... In transportation, there's nothing more conservative than traveling under your own power. This is the transportation version of living within one's means, the guiding directive of the fiscal conservative.
The interesting problem is that every time we brand the bicycle, Hurst says some segment will become alienated from it.
Every time bicycling becomes associated with another cause, whether it be legit or wacko, right or left, more people are alienated from it than attracted to it.
So that is why Kristin and I are here to blog about biking. We are none of the things listed in the first quote. We are just a young couple that wants an enjoyable and peaceful way to get places that keeps us healthy and having fun. We are not extreme people, just the couple next door that is tired of sitting around all the time and the bike seemed like a good out.
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