Are cycle commuters moral just because?

Some of us think so. Some people who just hear a regular bicycle commuter talk about their experiences, or how they do what they do day in and day out, seem to find it easy to arrive at the conclusion that this cyclist believes he's committing a morally superior act. As if someone who takes the extra time out of his day to ride a few miles to work, and then clean up and change into work clothes is somehow engaging in an act akin to lending the neighbour his truck to help him move, or helping a little old lady across the street.

Tonight, after reading a set of web comments debating the merits and dangers of bike riding to work (mostly in cities), M noted that she could check, for my portion of the long form census that we're filling out (is this now a moral act too, since we don't really have to do it by law), that my mode of transport to and from work is by bicycle. Well not it's official. Finally someone of consequence knows that I ride my bike to work.

Why do people, when they find out that I commute by bike for the five miles too and from work, rain or shine, fall, winter, and spring, often admire me, then congratulate me, then tell me I'm crazy, then ask me why, as if there must be some larger, more "meaningful" reason for it? Am I trying to save the environment? (What? How would one begin to do that?) Do I hate cars? (Only their drivers!) Don't I have a vehicle? (by this they mean one that uses gasoline - I own three by last count) Is someone else using my car?

Each of these questions presumes that riding a bicycle to and from work is somehow on the edge of sanity. It's weird, and why would I want to be weird? It's difficult, and why would I want to do anything difficult? (or Why wouldn't I do the easier thing, since I could?) And so on. With these sorts of questions and concerns, it seems that it doesn't take too long for people to "go" to the moral question.

Moral actions are often marginal acts, things people do that are out of the ordinary, acts that stand out. You will be easily able to tell, from this logic, when someone does something moral. It'll be obvious. This sort of thinking, which seems to abound in an affluent society worried about its right to (and the rightness of) its wealth and comfort, and therefore a bit neurotic about what might be moral, or not, wants to label any marginal, or unorthodox, act as moral, or immoral.

Few people seem content with answers like, because I want to, or because I like it, or because I feel better mentally and physically from it, or because it's my gym. They want something more. Something moral. Something that they can debate. But really, I'm just riding my bike to work. That's my choice. You can make of it what you want.


Ride report
in:         7'C wind 30 ks NNW
out:     15'C wind 25 ks NNW