Before the advent of fossil fuel-powered transport, travellers crawled across the surface of the planet slowly. The world, back then, was bigger; getting anywhere at all was an adventure in itself. Today, the world is small. I can live my life in London, UK, and still attend family events in Sweden, where I’m from, several times a year. I can have my cake and eat it.
That is, if it weren’t for one thing: the climate. The emissions released by aeroplanes mean flying in them is among the most carbon-intensive things most people are likely to ever do. Trying to avoid these emissions, I have experimented with ferry and train travel between the UK and Sweden for over a decade. But plane is almost always the cheapest option. So what about cycling?
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But not all environmental benefits are measurable in emission units. “The bigger picture takeaway [with a long-distance ride] would be getting the conversation in people’s minds,” Yanocha says. “You would automatically think ‘oh, I’m just going to fly’, [but] actually you could do this on a bike.”
Cycling helps us appreciate nature, says Brandi Horton, vice president of communication at the US non-profit Rails to Trails Conservancy. "When you’re zooming around in your car or you’re on the train or you’re on a plane, you are not going slow enough to notice what lives [around] you. When you’re off the highway… you suddenly see something entirely different
It’s so true about the world being bigger on a bike. You get to see and experience so much more. It’s partly the slower speed but also because you can stop so much more easily. A car gets you places fast but it’s also a burden and a liability. Also, while cycling you’re not inside a separate and discrete container, you’re actually in the world.
I thought about this a lot when i’m driving, like i always see something interesting like a shop or stall and wanting to stop, but i can’t because either i’ll go by it in the next second or there’s car at the back and i might cause an accident or there’s just impossible to park there. With bicycle, i can do some sightseeing and stop quicker if something interested me. Unlike car or motorcycle, no one gonna bark at me for riding 10km/h.
