Icycle

I am an avid cyclist and an adovocate for carfree and car-lite living. My wife is neither. I ride a bike as my default mode of transportation. My wife usually drives everywhere unless there is an obvious, immediate benefit in terms of time, money, or hassle saved.

We live about a mile and a half away from downtown San Jose, which has a relatively nice selection of restaurants and theaters. We've lived here for years, but until quite recently we when go there together, we've always driven. The free parking on evenings and weekends was too enticing to convince my wife to do otherwise.

But recently the city has changed its parking policy, and most downtown parking is now no longer free. Suddenly the calculus of driving had changed, at least for us. Now I am able to convince her, sometimes at least, to leave the car at home. Having our own tandem at home also helps, because it means that she doesn't have to worry about piloting a bike through urban conditions, she can stay right next to me, and she doesn't even have to work very hard, since I can easily do nearly all the work of pedaling over such a short, flat route.

Two weeks ago, we tandemed to downtown to meet friends for dinner followed by a local production of 'Altar Boyz'. And this past weekend was a car-lite extravaganza! On Friday night, we tandemed to downtown for dinner. Saturday night we tandemed to downtown to see a local production of 'Noises Off'. And on Sunday, we biked about five miles each way to nearby Campbell to attend their Oktoberfest festival.

At the festival we purchased two bamboo cutting boards and two salad bowls. My wife was skeptical that I'd be able to get them home on the tandem, despite my assurances. Then she was thoroughly impressed when I managed to get everything securely attached for the trip home. As an experienced car-lite shopper, I had come prepared with rear rack, panniers, and a cargo net. This load wasn't even a challenge!

I'm not sure I will ever get my wife to embrace the bicycle as utilitarian transportation as thoroughly as I have, but at least I've started to convince her that it can be a good option sometimes.

oldfool

Sound like my story except that getting "She Who Must Be Obeyed" onto a tandom with me would be about as likely as getting her on a horse or into a jet pack. Now there is a mental picture.

Icycle

Getting my wife on a tandem was a story in itself. Surprisingly, it required almost no persuasion on my part. She knows I love cycling, so she was willing to give it a try. It helped that my initial suggestion combined tandeming with a trip through wine country, which is something that we both already enjoyed. Until recently though, tandeming for us had been strictly recreational. Now, it is starting to be utilitarian as well as recreational.

Roody

I love the way Icycle and his wife use their tandem for a lot more than the usual commuting and shopping. I especially like riding my bike to festivals, rallies, concerts and sporting events. It sure is convenient to park by the entrance and ride right past the traffic jams .

AdamD

I think that is the key. To get anyone to even try cycling it has to be framed by something they enjoy, people don't like having things shoved down their throats. Shoot, even for me enjoyment is the key. Car free living is great, and I could claim that I do it for some noble reason like the environment. The real truth is that I do it because I enjoy it.

I recently purchased a new commuter bike. There are plenty of bikes that would have done the job perfectly fine, but when it came right down to it I bought the bike that I enjoyed the most and brought the biggest smile to my face when I rode it. I think the enjoyment factor is even more important for people you are trying to get into cycling. Get them started by riding to wine tasting, dinner, theater, farmers market, whatever and then hopefully they'll embrace it for other more utilitarian things.

Doohickie

My wife has terrible knees and has seriously injured herself while cycling, so the chances of getting her on a bike are slim to none. I'm just grateful she doesn't try to limit my own riding.

Icycle

Actually, the expense and hassle of parking is a major factor in getting my wife out of the car. Last weekend, we went to Burning Man Decompression up in San Francisco, about 50 miles away. It turns out that the local commuter train has a stop just a couple blocks away from the festival location. So we drove to a nearby train station, and took the train the rest of the way. Our walk from the destination station to the festival was shorter than the walk for a lot of people who drove!

And for Oktoberfest, we parked our tandem just across the street from the festival.

Not having to deal with car parking and being able to get the best possible parking on a bike are major reason to leave the car at home for these kinds of events.

gwd

I've been noticing that the more intense lovemaking in the evening, the better cooking she does for me the next day. You might make sure you pay extra attention on the days you use the bike for transportation. What good is the science of behavioral psychology if you don't make use of the results? In order to reinforce the desired behavior the reward should come during or immediately after the behavior. Wine country and dinner fit into this but if you're trying to get more practical transportation going, you need other rewards until she realizes for herself that biking is its own reward. "We go out to the mall in the car- he's all tense that evening, we go running errands on the bike and he gets all romantic."