I successfully, but barely, made it a month without having a car in one of the hottest months of the year. Initially, I thought to myself ” I don’t need a car, I’ll be the bike-advocacy poster child.”
So I switched my work hours to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. since I was waking up early to beat the heat. I arrived to work each morning in my spandex and tank top and changed into my work clothes. For the first week, I felt like a badass bike chic. The second week, I just felt like a bike chic. By the third week, the heat and the city’s cracked and pockmarked streets began to break me down. During the fourth week, I wanted to kick my bike, sit down on the sidewalk and cry like a little girl.
Did I become model thin with all this new exercise? No. Was I the badass bike lady? No. I was the sweaty, smelly office girl with helmet hair.
Without a car, I felt stranded. If I wanted to go to the grocery store, or downtown to a concert, I had new challenges of factoring in the time it would take me to get there, the amount of energy I had, and how sweaty I would be once I got to my destination. Biking is more pleasurable when it feels like a choice and not your only method of transportation.
I still believe we need to become a more bike-friendly city. In Mississippi, the heat will always be a challenge, but the streets don’t have to be. We also need to improve our public transportation system if we want to get people out of their cars.
I also purged about 75 percent of my belongings last week, as I moved into a furnished apartment. I am vowing to only own as much stuff as will fit into my car, at least for the next five years. This feels much more healthy.
Previous Comments
Don’t give up, Lacey. Beat the heat! Show us what you got! You can do it. Quitter never win. Winner never quit. If you can keep your head when all others are losing theirs…. I was in Toronto last week. The weather was gorgeous but I missed the Mississpi oven. Just kidding. You don’t get enough credit for writing good and challenging columns.
#159419 | Author: Walt | Date: Aug 19 2010
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
