Thanks for Biking

Working on a problem as large as the climate crisis comes with a plethora of issues: 

• the number and diversity of emission sources are vast

• the potential effects are distant in time (and often place) and largely unknowable

• the solutions all bring with them new problems of their own

This makes recommending changes to people's daily lives difficult since the benefits are not clear, and often not immediate. One area where people can make a change that does have immediate benefits, and that I have always been more than happy to participate in, is bicycling. Getting out of the car and onto a bicycle doesn't feel like I'm sacrificing anything to lower my carbon emissions; it feels like a reward!

Getting more people on bikes has been a mantra for most of my life; whether it's been for people's health and well-being, car traffic reduction and increasing overall city pleasantness, or to lower carbon footprint. That has manifested itself through my volunteering at community bike shops and events, encouraging friends/family to get on their bikes, emailing city reps about improving bike infrastructure, and just spending as much time as possible on my bike while shouting its benefits into the void.

This time, it's signs. I wanted to make something that said "thanks for biking" and put it out in the wild. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to get non-bikers on bikes, but I rarely thank people once they're on there. So here they are. A little thank you to the people already getting their butts on bikes.

The first one has an extra message that my wife came up with that I really liked. We see a lot of parents dropping their able-bodied kids off at school on beautiful sunny days, and "movement over minivans" captures my feelings about that succintly.

The second is a wind-powered pinwheel that just says "thanks for biking". I wanted an excuse to try out some aluminum welding, so I laser-etched some words onto aluminum sheet and welded them onto an aluminum rim. The differing alloys ended up being a disaster, so don't look too closely at those welds!