The Adventures of Bikepooling!

<img src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/4/hoot_b.gif" alt="bikepool" border="1" align="left" style="padding:2px;" /> <i>Adam Durand is a bike commuter, filmmaker, and animal rights activist. Caitlin Holcombe is a bike commuter, craftmaker, and human rights activist. Together they form a bike commuting duo! They collaborated on this essay about their adventures in bikepooling. <b>[Special thanks to Adam, Caitlin, and RocBike.com (“The single greatest achievement on the inner tubes!”) for allowing us to publish this piece. Ed.]</b></i> <br /> <br /> Carpooling attempts to mitigate the problems inherent with using automobiles — fuel costs, environmental impact, traffic congestion, and parking space; to name a few. Commuting by bike eliminates these problems altogether instead of merely reducing them, so at first glance bikepooling may seem unnecessary. But bikepooling shares carpooling’s benefit of social interaction and brings a whole other set of benefits to the table — increased visibility on the road, improved respect from other road users, and cooperative adventuring. If driving a car is a passive, rote task; and riding a bike is about actually living your life; then bikepooling is a way to share the daily adventure of bike commuting with someone, to learn how to be safe and fun together, to try new routes and get into the groove of familiar ones, to laugh and play together while being ambassadors for a safer, cleaner, happier city. <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20650/index.php"><b>Read the full account here!</b></a> <br /> <br /> <b>Additional Information</b>: <a href="http://www.rocbike.com/2007/07/18/adam-durand-making-the-switch/">Making the Switch by Adam Durand</a> | <a href="http://www.rocbike.com/">RocBike.com</a>

<p><img src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/4/hoot_b.gif" alt="bikepool" border="1" align="left" style="padding:2px;" /> <i>Adam Durand is a bike commuter, filmmaker, and animal rights activist. Caitlin Holcombe is a bike commuter, craftmaker, and human rights activist. Together they form a bike commuting duo! They collaborated on this essay about their adventures in bikepooling. <b>[Special thanks to Adam, Caitlin, and RocBike.com (“The single greatest achievement on the inner tubes!”) for allowing us to publish this piece. Ed.]</b></i> </p> <p> Carpooling attempts to mitigate the problems inherent with using automobiles — fuel costs, environmental impact, traffic congestion, and parking space; to name a few. Commuting by bike eliminates these problems altogether instead of merely reducing them, so at first glance bikepooling may seem unnecessary. But bikepooling shares carpooling’s benefit of social interaction and brings a whole other set of benefits to the table — increased visibility on the road, improved respect from other road users, and cooperative adventuring. If driving a car is a passive, rote task; and riding a bike is about actually living your life; then bikepooling is a way to share the daily adventure of bike commuting with someone, to learn how to be safe and fun together, to try new routes and get into the groove of familiar ones, to laugh and play together while being ambassadors for a safer, cleaner, happier city. <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20650/index.php"><b>Read the full account here!</b></a> </p> <p> <b>Additional Information</b>: <a href="http://www.rocbike.com/2007/07/18/adam-durand-making-the-switch/">Making the Switch by Adam Durand</a> | <a href="http://www.rocbike.com/">RocBike.com</a></p>