Doing some thinking (my head still aches) and wondered what if I never became a bike commuter. Humm....

I would alternate between mass transit, and driving a car, because I would have never get rid of my car. While taking mass transit, I would be greeted every day by glum faces ready to begin the workday. I may as well be waiting for the second coming, if I’m waiting for MARTA, and certain buses would have the oppressive smell of sweat and urine mixed with equally oppressive heat.

While driving, I wouldn’t mind paying through the teeth: over $2000 for gas a year, $1200 for car insurance, and perhaps $1000 for miscellaneous repairs/replacements. That’s $4,200 a year, $25,200 over 6 years the average time it takes before the average American considers getting a new car. On top of that I would spend on average, ten forty-hour weeks behind the wheel. (Conservation Law Foundation, August 1996) I wouldn’t notice all the pollution (pounds of it) that I’d be throwing into the faces of pedestrians and cyclists.

Since I live in East Point I would be supporting a expansion of the Atlanta freeway system. If I did have a car, I would California stop through signs thinking only of me, and just not caring. I wouldn’t ever ride the streets of West End and experience the smell of fresh baked cookies from the Nabisco factory, or see the goats at the Metropolitan Complex because I would be in my car driving on the freeways instead. I would still be working 40-60 hours a week at a job that I would walk into everyday with a frown on my face. I wouldn’t generously give my morning smiles away because I was in the outdoors commuting by bike, swooshing pass the cars stuck in traffic, and waving at cyclists passing by.

I would be tipping the scales at over 300lbs, grappling with high blood pressure and cholesterol, and diabetes. I would be squeezing my large body into airline seats whenever I flew. I wouldn't mind having to pay more for "big-man clothes and having little or no selection or choice of style.

Would I ever engage in constructive dialogue about transportation issues? Would I see myself as not an innocent, but as somebody who in some small way is part of the problem rather than part of the solution?

Well, it’s really not good to dwell on what might have happened. Go ride a bike!