Roody

Today is Gay Pride Day here in Lansing. Well I am proud to be gay, but more to the point, all who are carfree have much to be proud about.

We carfree folk work a little harder, and in return we have a little more fun. We care about our planet and we care about our own neighborhoods. We also care enough about our own bodies to get off our butts and exercise. We can be proud that we're smart enough to have discovered a great tactic for making our paychecks go farther. And we're pioneers, we're pointing a new direction for our fellow citizens to take. Most of all, we can be proud of our self-reliant natures--something which used to be considered a part of American personality.

gotta go--I'm riding my bike in the parade, if they'll let me.

davidmcowan

lauren,
Deep breath. Let the man revel in that which is great.

Word,
Dave

smurfy

Dayton had thier Gay Pride parade downtown the first Sat. of this month. I watched it from the bus. The city rerouted the busses to make room for the parade but the bus I was on was an electric trolley with those overhead wires so those couldn't be rerouted and we just had to sit there until the parade was over.

Interestingly enough although there was some grousing by some other passengers for having to wait, I did not hear one single negative comment about the parade itself or about gays. I think a "Carfree Pride Parade" may have been more shocking to them!

You are right, Roody. Carfree is something to be proud about. Now if we can get more gays (and straights!) to get out of thier gas guzzling SUV's, Beemers ...(We need to get Will of "Will and Grace" out of his gas guzzling Range Rover!).

LilSprocket

Good for you Roody.

I'm pretty darn excited about being able to bike to work and around town to run errands to stretch my earned dollar this way and conserve resources (and burn some calories!).

I'm delighted to tell folks who ask (cuz I don't push it on anyone) about my adventures in communting and if I'm really really lucky, can inspire others who may be inclined... and I have... people have told me that I have inspired them to commute to work as often as possible... that makes me feel pretty good... not in a snotty way, but in an excited to get someone else perhaps thinking about things in a bigger picture sort of way

I hope you got to ride in the parade

I-Like-To-Bike

On second thought, do your thing and enjoy! Shake dat booty with pride!



Don't forget your spandex and safety helmet.

Pampusik

I don't know if we work harder, but we definately work smarter!

Roody

I rode in the parade--wearing pink spandex bike kit with a rhinestone helmets and a big sign that said "I Ride With Pride" on one side and "I Love Stanley" on the other side.

I did get to ride (with pride)--but I just wore baggy green shorts and a light blue wicking Tee. A few people took my picture though! It was fun, but I couldn't stay long because I had to go to work.

I-Like-To-Bike

bragi

Hey, knock it off. One of the things I like about this forum is that it's generally pretty positive, and #%%^ like that is not very helpful. You go, Roody!

patc

Hope you enjoyed it... looks like there will be no Pride Festival in Ottawa this year . At best we'll have an informal march.

CTAC

Are you saying that anyone riding a bike is a kind of a pervert?

Guest

No. I think you're being overly sensitive for no reason.

Calm down.

Koffee Brown

Moderator

Loooty

Thanks for intervening early Koffee, I guess that this thread would be ripe for disruption.

I don't even understand what ILTB means with those ?singing? ?yawning? faces.

Anyway, I'm proud to be carfree, though I don't go around bragging about it. I'd like to set a silent example for people but if they decide to follow it, or find it valuable, that is up to them.

I've never tried to ride in a parade of any kind. How fast was the parade? Did you have to keep putting your foot down?

I-Like-To-Bike

For clarification, take a look at Roody's recent posts on this forum in response to others discussing a subject that he feels no PC cyclist interested in the subject of living car free dare discuss without his blessing.

BTW the icons are big dang big yawns, appropriate to the Roodster's gratuitous declarations of OT pride on this forum.

chennai

I still cannot figure out why you think Roody's threads (the Forum threads not the baggy shorts) are offtopic. Suggesting that people take pride in being carfree and discussing it in the context another group demonstrating pride in their existence seems on-topic to me.

chicbicyclist

I thought we had a car-free pride day too, but I remembered that it was two separate events that I attended last year. Both had the same exact venue. Gay pride and then the Earth day thing where car-free/car-lite people had a sort of a parade.

Pride is a month after the major ones here. I don't know why they do that.

gerv 

Agreed.

I-Like-To-Bike

Car free pride is one thing, Roody's pride in his sexual preference for men is another; no one asked, so a big fat yawn goes for his telling everybody on the BF, again, his personal beeswax. Yawns are especially appropriate for the Roodster who has no tolerance for topics that don't meet his standards/preferences for discussion.

gerv 

? You should post this in the pride-free forum.

2manybikes

Next year bring the digital camera !

Loooty

You should be yawning all over the "How to get Girls" thread. It's all about sex. And if you are going to be holding other people to that standard, don't go mentioning your wife or children or any of that beeswax.

Anyway, Roody is a thoughtful poster as far as I'm concerned.

I still want to know how fast parades go. Do you have to swerve back and forth to stay up or is it fast enough to just ride slowly?

chennai

LOL

I-Like-To-Bike

1. Probably would if those posters made a big dang obnoxious show of posting their displeasure like Roody with big fat remarks of "YAWN" on discussions of subjects that don't meet his personal standards of suitability.

2. Haven't you noticed that discussion of wife, children and/or caring for the welfare of dependents is seldom an item of concern to the proselytizers of the car-free life on this forum?

Artkansas 

Don't forget your helmet Roody. I think it's good to ride in the parade. Some of the best PR possible.

I got out Bicycle Advocacy Group to ride in last winter's Holiday parade, and everyone had fun. It also sent a strong positive message about bicycling and the desirability of bicycling. Other cyclists should explore it. Don't be surprised when they can't figure out whether your group should be classified as a motor vehicle or a marching band.

Take back the Parades!

Roody

Thanks for the remarks everybody. I tried to post yesterday but the server was acting up. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the Pride Parade. I didn't mean to bore anybody. It's just that the general theme of "pride" made me think about being carfree and proud. If this kind of righteous pride in a job well done is alien to some of you, I guess I can't explain it. But I think most people know what I'm talking about.

So I'll say it again, If you're carfree, you should be proud of it. And if you're struggling to be less car dependent, you should be proud of that. If you just don't give a damn about what cars are doing to our planet and our human society, then I don't think you should be proud at all.

Riding in the parade, to answer Loooty's question, was pretty easy. I just put in my lowest gear and rode at the same speed as the crowd. There were a few other bikes there too. It was nice having the bike as a little seat during the rally on the capitol steps.

My new idea is for a carfree parade. I'd love to see thousands of bikes plus pedicabs, horses, mobile sculptures, dogcarts, and any other type of human powered vehicles, all parading down the main street of every city. What fun that would be!!