A Reality Bite!

Riding my bike all the time keeps the news about the gas prices and shortage strictly as an academic concern. But I unfortunately can't keep out of it forever. This past week I needed to make a trip to Atlanta. My gas tank was full as I had filled it up before this whole shortage thing and hadn't used my car since.





I was able to make it to and back Atlanta. But once I was in Atlanta, the lane of traffic I was in stopped. The left hand lane seemed to be making progress so I peered up the road as far as I could to see what was holding everything up. I could see a car stopped. Was it broken down? Was there an obstacle that necessitated a stop and lane change? I couldn't tell. But the other cars behind it didn't seem to be in a hurry to get around it.





I made the lane change and when I came alongside the stopped car I could tell what was happening. All these cars were in line for gas! Wow! Out of the gas station parking lot into the street. What a hark back to the seventies. I hadn't realized it was that bad.





As I drove Atlanta streets I could see that gas station after gas station had no gas. When the occasional one did, I saw lines, lines, lines! Apparently there wasn't much movement in the lines because I saw people out of the cars, socializing, smoking, cell phone calling or otherwise killing time.





Boy, I was grateful to get back home to my bike! Which makes me wonder why more people aren't riding their bikes in this gas shortage/price situation. Why aren't people doing it?





All right now! I can already hear the reasons being given for not riding bikes. Believe me, I hear it all the time. And there are many, many challenges that makes riding difficult. So let's just consider the group that most of these challenges don't apply to. So that would be everyone that live within 5 miles of their work, their work doesn't require them to travel from place to place, there are no kids to drop off and pick up, doesn't have carry much, and there are no physical disabilities ( being overweight and unfit doesn't count.) I am not saying everyone should, I am just wondering, as a response to the gas crisis, that more people don't think about it. It should would save many headaches and worries!





Personally, I think is as a lack of imagination. It is hard to imagine doing it if a person has never done it. But the more people do it, the more people start firing up the imagination. And people ARE doing it more. I guess I am looking for a grand rush as people get tired of being jerked around by this gas thing. But it is coming. In the mean time, I will be grateful that I don't have to stand in line to get gas