Good Lord, part 2 - look at how many bicycling enthusiasts wrote to me about last Friday's bike adventure to the Loop! I had a feeling, in fact, that there are a lot of bike nuts that read my journal, but finally had that proven once I got a bike myself and started writing about it. Among other interesting and supportive letters, I got an email from someone calling herself "Anne Alt" (and how great is that alias?), telling me where the indoor parking at the downtown Monroe red-line el stop actually is located; it's inside the turnstiles, as a matter of fact, just a few feet away from the turnstile operator's booth. Oh, doy! The operator and I were looking all over the outside of the turnstiles for them, which I guess is why we didn't find them. Anyway, even though it's nice to know that I wasn't in a hallucinatory fever dream when reading my CTA bike map, I don't think I'd recommend actually parking your bike at the Monroe stop; this is the next downtown stop scheduled to get rehabbed, in fact, and they're far enough along at this point that they've basically abandoned the stop, and are one step away from closing it down for the actual rehab, which means that there are absolutely no CTA employees there anywhere to keep an eye on things. But like I said in my original entry, this isn't that big a deal; there are hundreds of free outdoor bike racks in the Loop as well, most in very public locations right in front of retail buildings, where there are always a ton of people around keeping an eye on things. (And I haven't even mentioned the new city-sponsored $3 million bike center in Millennium Park, complete with indoor lockable storage spaces, showers, a police station right inside the center, and a cafe right inside the center as well; one day soon I'll actually get my ass over to it, and have some news and photos to share with you.)

I also received a number of politically-oriented emails about that entry, which came in two basic forms; those who are disappointed by me becoming "one of those annoying, smug, self-righteous bike snobs," as one particular email put it, and of course lots of people proud of me for becoming one of those annoying, smug, self-righteous bike snobs. Typical of these is this one by Jim F., who by his signature I believe is a lawyer here in Chicago (and sorry, Jim, if you didn't mean for this email to be public knowledge; it was just a great recap of many comments I received this week, which is why I'm reprinting it here):

"I work downtown. I commute by bike every day of the year, and I can tell you that once you get used to riding a bike in the city it is hands down the fastest, easiest and most inexpensive way to get around. Cars have quicker take off, but bikes never have to wait in traffic. The end result is that I can beat a car anywhere in the city during rush hour by a long shot. There are exceptions- at 3:00am on a Sunday morning when there is no traffic cars may get around slightly faster, but who travels [to the Loop] at this time anyway?

"Having said all that, it takes a little while to get used to riding in the streets, but I'll tell you that any real commuter considers the lake front path to be just as dangerous- if not more - than riding in the street. Especially between Belmont and Oak Street beach. You take your life into your hands if you're riding it down there...

"Ride a bike. It's good for the country, city and individual."

Good points, Jim! In fact, I believe that the reason passionate bikers are seen by so many as smug and self-righteous these days is precisely because they have to be self-righteous these days; look, for example, at our President, who back in January during the State of the Union address even admitted himself that we're dangerously close as a society of running out of fossil fuels (as in, it could possibly happen within our lifetimes), then proceeded to spend not one single second talking about how we could possibly, God forbid, actually use less fossil fuels as a society. (For international readers who missed it, Bush instead spent ten minutes talking about all the new oil we could be digging up in places like Alaska, if we'd just simply repeal most of the environmental-protection laws currently on the books.) MORON! Do you see why bicycle people frequently get the way they do? Our current administration simply does not have the slightest interest whatsoever in doing even the slightest thing to reduce pollution, energy waste or our dependence on fossil fuels; their answer instead is to simply dig up more of the earth to find the last possible reserves of such resources - and barring that, simply invading countries that are rich in such fossil fuels, so as to claim such reserves for ourselves. It's pretty clear by now that it's up to us as individuals, if we want this country to even get close to entering the world stage as far as global pollution standards, global environmental actions, etc.

All of this, though, is missing the real point, which is that bicycling in a place like Chicago makes a real and quantifiable difference in your own particular life, and your own particular finances, health, etc. Hey, you know me; I may lean left at times, but like many others I don't believe in just blindly doing things for the "greater good" of society it may produce. Using a bike as your primary source of transportation, in a place like Chicago where such a thing is possible, may be good for society as a whole; much more importantly, though, that's $80 a month you're saving on CTA passes, $100 a month on gas, another $100 a month on parking, God only knows how much on city stickers and inspections and repairs and maintenance and parking tickets. That's 45 minutes a day you're not sitting around waiting for one of those maddening city busses to show up, or endlessly driving around in a circle, looking for a parking place. An extra 45 minutes a day you're not sitting around chain-smoking, waiting for a bus or looking for a parking place. An extra 15, 30 miles a day of exercise you're getting, exercise that is some of the most aerobically-healthy you can get, while still never really tiring you out since Chicago is a completely flat city. An extra 45 minutes a day you're outside, with the sun on your face and the wind whipping by you, alone with your thoughts and able to concentrate, versus in a dark car or train, so stressed over congestion (vehicular, pedestrian) that you can never really be alone with your thoughts or get anything productive accomplished. These things, to me, are the real reasons to add a lot more bicycling to one's life; the selfish benefits that can be derived, the money saved, the time better spent, the healthier, sexier body that results. The fact that you're helping to save the environment, as well as becoming one more American who's no longer a prison bitch of OPEC, may be great secondary benefits, but I still consider them that - secondary benefits. Anyway, maybe all this helps explain a little more the attitude you often hear from "bike snobs," and why you should become one yourself.