No Drive Day Should Live On
October 13, 2008 • By Anne Dreyfuss, The Breeze
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I love JMU in the fall. Football games, fiery sunsets over the Shenandoah Valley, and the first golden leaves falling from the trees make our campus feel the way college is supposed to feel.
But my favorite part of JMU in the fall is the overwhelming amount of bicycles throughout campus. They overflow the bike racks outside the library and ISAT. They line the fences at the entryways to buildings. They’re locked to tree trunks, lampposts and stair railings.
They’re everywhere. And why not?
The sun is high midday this time of year. Happy couples bask on the Quad. Professors treat their students by holding class outside. And this is perfect biking weather. The conditions couldn’t be better.
But as I relish JMU’s carbon-conscious attitude when conditions are right, I can’t help but wonder: How many of these bicycle benefactors will be riding their two-wheeled beauties once the temperature drops below 50 and the fall breeze turns into winter wind?
Each year, I watch the number of cyclists decrease in direct correlation with the falling temperature. The streets get lonelier as the months roll on. By mid-January, I can go a week without seeing one other cyclist sharing the road with me.
Why, JMU, are we collectively scared off our bikes by the first sign of frost?
This Wednesday JMU is holding its second annual No Drive Day. I’m sure the event will be a big success. Especially if it’s a clear day above 60 degrees.
But will people be biking to school on Nov. 15? Jan. 15?
The JMU green team didn’t organize No Drive Day because biking is a more fun alternative to driving a car. They organized it because biking is a small solution to our huge environmental crisis — and it’s something you should do every day, not just the days when it’s nice outside. We need to mature from a campus of recreational road cyclists to a school of bold bike warriors.
The students who put their feet on the pedals to stand up for environmental stewardship year-round are making a difference in the right direction. Biking around campus makes our bodies a little bit better, and it also makes the world a little bit better.
But there’s another reason to keep biking even when it’s more challenging.
Two summers ago, I took part on the most awe-inspiring journey of my young adult life. I biked from the Atlantic coast of Providence, R.I., over the Appalachian Mountains, through the cornfields of the Midwest, up and down the Rocky Mountains and literally into the Puget Sound waters of Seattle.
Memories of golden fields of wheat and the sunrises over the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming are what stick out in my memory of that summer of unforgettable experiences. But these sights meant more to me because I also battled 40-mph headwinds, stood my ground against 18-wheeler truckers and sweated through scorching desert summer afternoons to get to them.
If I had not biked through a rain and hail storm in Yellowstone National Park, I never would have stopped in at a tiny roadside gas station to ask for a makeshift trash bag raincoat. And I never would have instead encountered the old man with the lines of the ancient mountain crevices etched in the corners of his eyes. The richness of the journey came from the sweetness found in the bitter days.
Life surprises us like a single flower blooming in a desert. But to see it, you’ve got to get out there. So bike around school on No Drive Day. And then bike the next day, and the next and the next. You’ll be doing the right thing for yourself and the environment. And the world will reward you with beauty that few eyes see.
Anne Dreyfuss is a junior media arts & design major.
Contact Anne Dreyfuss at dreyfuaj@jmu.edu
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[...] Anne Dreyfuss, a JMU junior media arts and design major, voiced her opinion in the Breeze article “No Drive Day Should Live On.” This devoted cyclist biked across country several years ago and continues her advocacy of the [...]