The Blog

Friday, February 26, 2010

Green Rider Presentation to Woodside High School

 This morning I made a presentation to two classes at my daughter's high school.  The interest level was average and directed mostly at the bicycles and how they work.  I got some good questions.  The best was from a girl who asked why we are using electric motors.  She noted that they still take fossil fuels to charge so where's the advantage.  I told her I wouldn't do this trip without an electric motor.  I also talked about how the people who try electric bikes come back from their test drives with big smiles on their faces.  They also tend to understand advantages that they never thought of before.  Grocery shopping, driving kids to school, picking up supplies from the farmer's market or hardware store are all ideas that come up that can keep the car in the driveway, reduce their carbon footprint and improve the health of the rider.  I was on the phone earlier this morning talking to a contact in West Virginia and he told me about a post-stroke friend who he put on an electric trike and the friend was able to build up his strength enough to graduate to a regular bicycle.  So the electric bicycle is also a tool for rehabilitation!!

I asked the students how many of them didn't know how to ride a bike.  A couple of hands went up but I bet there were others who were too embarrassed to admit they didn't know how to ride.  Then I asked how many rode bikes regularly.  Only three hands went up.  I was shocked.  When I was in high school a huge percentage of us students rode every day.  It was normal.  The excuse was that it's not safe.  Obviously, I don't agree with that but somehow our culture has decided that parents shouldn't encourage their children to ride bicycles.  Not only does the safety paranoia keep kids off of bikes but it also feeds the frenzy for big, heavy, carbon intensive SUV's.
Or was it the other way around??