I admire you and I suspect you are right that we will find ourselves on bikes but the transition will not be voluntary. Kailua, Hawaii is relatively bike friendly. In most of Honolulu you would have been down a child or two or a spouse, thanks to our terrible roads, no shoulders, and cheerfully oblivious drivers.
Ecologists may get selected out as exemplars but what if the exemplars get selected against? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry T. Spencer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 10:47 am Subject: To: [email protected] > Just reading Bill Silvert's note about juggling packages along the > side > of the road because of no car and non-use of plastic bags. It > reminds > me of the sabbatical leave where I was a visiting professor at the > UH-Manoa. We lived in Kailua with no car for a full year, but we > did > take our children with us (three of them--note: my sister as no > children, so we're still within the 2/family limit) and we did take > five bicycles with us. While in Hawaii we picked up five plastic > milk > carton containers, one for each of the bikes. The decision as to > how > many children went to the market depended upon the level of the > shopping trip. Sometimes it was just myself and my wife, but for a > big > market day, it was the whole family. Outside the store, we would > try to > equally load each of the plastic milk cartons, until there was no > room > in any of them. Anything else would be bungeed to the top. That > usually worked pretty well, until the day my wife bought a fifty > pound > bag of rice. We did get it home. I also have taken to and from my > house a car tire (rim, tube, tire) to the gas station to fix a > flat. I > thought I was pretty progressive for an American until I spent a > year > in China, where there I saw just about everything being transported > by > bicycle, including a pig strapped over the back of the bike. > > Although I look back in humor at our year in Hawaii and at what we > saw > in China, I know that in the future, we will have to return to the > system described above. I guess I'm ahead of the curve as I've > been > there and done that. > > Cheers, > > Larry > > PS, I also agree with Bill. Why are we continuing to be selected > out > as exemplars. Just because we are ecologists, does mean we have to > be > perfect in our actions. > > -- > Larry T. Spencer, Professor Emeritus of Biology > Plymouth State University > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. >
