Guest Blog: The Team Bike Evangelist
Dear Fellow Team Bike Challenge Riders,
I’m Don Lubach. I am a career counselor, adult education instructor, and a board member with the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition. And for the month of June, I’ll be joining you all as a competitor in this great, decentralized group ride organized by the wonderful crew at Traffic Solutions. When someone suggested that I contribute some posts to the blog, I was very honored. Here’s my first one.
I have always had a strong negative reaction to the "true believer." I can feel the multi-level-marketing pitch coming from miles away and I run for cover; I don't like when I'm handed a clipboard in front of the market; I don't like invitations to study groups that comb over sacred texts; I screen for telemarketers. But, friends, when it comes to the bicycle commute, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, and the concept of alternative transport -- I am as fired up as the most caffeinated evangelist. I can't help myself.
There is so much joy in the simple bicycle errand, I have to share it with others. The recipients of my zeal are kind to me as I run, breathlessly, through a long list of things I like about not using the car to get to work. I appreciate their understanding.
There's a negative side to evangelism. More than 10 years of bicycle commuting happiness has made me judgmental about some of our neighbors. There's a guy who, nearly every morning, cold-starts his SUV in order to carry his child two blocks to the local elementary school. He drives a bit fast and everyone on the family bicycle keeps a close eye on him--the poor misguided soul. A religious evangelist might be worried that this two-block driver could be doomed to eternal suffering in a hot and Smokey place. From our observation, he's there now.
I guess I can only forgive the lost driver and hope that, one day, he'll come to the truth.
Yours,
Don Lubach
UCSB Team Ding Bell
