Quotes about cycling
The advantages? Exercise, no parking problems, gas prices, it’s fun. An automobile is expensive. You have to find a place to park and it’s not fun. So why not ride a bicycle? I recommend it.
Supreme Court Justice Breyer, on the virtues of riding a bike. (via B&I)
As Whitelegg says: “People consume the benefit of speed by spending it on distance.” Transport studies show that time saved in one journey is used to make additional journeys not previously considered. Mainly in cars. But as Whitelegg points out: “The congestion costs which motorists impose on others are not borne by car drivers.” According to Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus at Britain’s Policy Studies Institute, increased public transport investment isn’t the answer. “Emphasis should be put on walking and cycling. And if that leads to more limited travel,” he goes on impishly, “so---fine.” . . . But there is a “green” car. It runs on tap water and toasted tea-cakes and has a built-in gym. It is called a bicycle. “Ah, the bicycle,” sighs Whitelegg, “far more sophisticated and useful than anything NASA has ever done.” In terms of energy consumption per meter versus body weight, he points out, self-propelled lemmings (read: cars) and passenger aircraft are the least efficient. A body on a bicycle is the most efficient.
From A Sideways Look at Time by Jay Griffith (via cornerstone life)
Socialism can only arrive by bicycle
José Antonio Viera Gallo (b. 1943), Chilean politician in Allende’s government
The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green
When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.
Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.
H.G. Wells
After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow.
H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.
H.G. Wells
I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it.
H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.
James E. Starrs
The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked.
Amy Webster
Nothing compares with the simple pleasure of a bike ride.
John F. Kennedy
The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind.
William Saroyan
The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.
Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895