Animal transport vs. the bicycle?

People are now starting to learn the hard way that gasoline is only a
finite resource. I'm noticing a lot more cyclists on the streets.
Still, there's a lot of cars. This tells me that, to some people,
gasoline is much like air for our lungs...One can't live without it.

Almost every form of transportation we have uses finite resources (at
least, in its production). Cyclists (yes, I am one) sometimes claim
that the bicycle is the cure to all of our transportation problems.
The only fuel we need is a big helping of your favorite food and some
water.

Unfortunately, the physical labor involved in cycling scares people
away. People have been so doped up by the ease of driving where the
only physical labor involved is the foot against the pedal and, if you
have manual transmission, the arm shifting gears.

If - or WHEN - animal transportation becomes frequently used do you
folks think, for example, a horse will be chosen over a bike?

Regards,
Cullen
Appleton, WI

If - or WHEN - animal transportation becomes frequently used do you
folks think, for example, a horse will be chosen over a bike?

Regards,
Cullen
Appleton, WI

Horse
------

- requires considerable expensive fuel

- needs daily maintenance

- causes random dangerous traffic accidents

- bad pollution problems

- difficult to dispose of at (very random) end of life

- requires expensive storage facilities, at two locations, if
commuting

- is slower than a bike, on road

- much better off road than bike

- better than bike on extreme uphills

- can carry 2 - 4 times as much as a bike, even off road, but
then slowed to walking speed

- recharging time double that of electric vehicle

- much better status symbol than bike (or even car)

Jeremy Parker

aka Cullen Carter of the Fox Cities wrote:
[...]
If - or WHEN - animal transportation becomes frequently used do you
folks think, for example, a horse will be chosen over a bike?

Horses taste better than bicycles.

--
Tom Sherman - 42.435731,-83.985007

On 2009-10-01, Tom Sherman °_° wrote:
aka Cullen Carter of the Fox Cities wrote:
[...]
If - or WHEN - animal transportation becomes frequently used do you
folks think, for example, a horse will be chosen over a bike?

Horses taste better than bicycles.

Except you have to go to Canada for it now, given that the last
slaughterhouse (in Dekalb, IL), was shut down by federal law.

If we go back to a society of horsemen, expect that law to be repealed
in a hurry. Gotta put old horses somewhere.

--

Kristian Zoerhoff