A agree about the relationship of bike use to gas prices. I think
what happens is a driver takes a short ride instead of jumping in his
car one day and discovers it was fun, so he does it again. So the gas
prices nudge him to discover that riding is fun and he realizes what
he may have known in his youth - he can travel pretty far in a short
time without huge effort and it's fun. That first ride can lead to
many more.

Now for a new advocacy issue. I always take my bike on trips and
since I'm at living at the end of a peninsula, which cannot be
escaped except by boat or plane. Therefore I am accustommed to bring
my bike on planes. In the last 12 months I flew to California and
Indonesia with no charges to bring a bike. Tomorrow I'm heading to
Cape Cod without one of my bikes because Delta wants to charge me an
extra $300 to help pay their fuel costs.



--- In bicyclingadvocacy@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Graff"
<michael.graff@...> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 15:26, thomas_d_church
> <thomas_d_church@...> wrote:
>
> > It's hard to account for the growth in bike use by looking at
advocacy
> > efforts, MUP construction, gas prices, etc. I think the only way
to
> > account for it is to understand that it's now a fad here. Not
only is
> > rding socially acceptable, it's become the thing to do. That's a
major
> > cultural shift.
>
> Here in California, I'm also seeing lots more cyclists. I'd guess
> most of it is because of high fuel prices. We went from about
> $3/gallon to about $4.50/gallon in a few months. Transit ridership
is
> also booming.
>
> More generally, when motoring gets more difficult or expensive,
> cycling becomes more attractive by comparison.
>