— by Family Biking Columnist Shannon Johnson. She previously wrote about when summer bike adventures go awry.
I’ve recently been reflecting on why I started biking with my children, and how we have evolved as a biking family over the last three-and-a-half years. Biking has improved our lives and also prompted us to change our lives, a process that continues as we grow as a family that rides. Today, we bike for many more reasons than when we started. I often think, “the more we bike, the more reasons we discover for doing so!”
As I was mulling over our own family’s biking journey, I asked some other local biking families to share their stories:
“Why do you bike as a family?” and “Have those reasons changed over time?”
A common thread immediately emerged in the answers I received: Local families who took up biking as their personal contribution to fight against climate change. While this was not the reason I started biking, I found these family bike stories to be edifying, as members of the community explained their personal commitment and major lifestyle changes to fight for a healthier environment for their children and future generations.
I hope you are as encouraged to read their stories as I was. Please feel free to share your own story in the comments, or email me longer answers at shannon4bikportland@gmail.com (If you email me your own family biking story for possible publication, please include a photo of your family biking.)
Rachel Philip
Our original “why” for biking as a family was that we don’t want our kids to live in a climate change hellscape, so we ought to act like part of the solution by riding our bikes rather than driving. One year in, that’s still a big part of the reason (and what gets me on the bike when the weather is particularly crummy or I’m not feeling my best).
But another reason we’ve stayed with it is because we love it. We have a five and two-year old, and they will both complain and sometimes cry when we take the car to school. The quality of time we spend together on our bike ride to school is a lot nicer than it is in the car. We get to see nature, our neighbors’ yards, and count dogs, garbage trucks, and school buses. We know where all the flamingo lawn decorations are. We’ve spotted a rabbit running around free in a particular neighborhood. Lately my kids have taken to screaming with joy on the big downhill part of our ride to daycare. The screams are not joyful in the car.
We don’t want our kids to live in a climate change hellscape, so we ought to act like part of the solution by riding our bikes rather than driving.
Our biking mission statement has been, if we think we can bike to a destination relatively safely, we will. We’re still getting in the car for events in neighboring cities and Costco trips. But, we do skew to more local and “bike friendly” destinations as a family. There are several cool parks that we just don’t visit as much anymore because we aren’t comfortable biking to them. On the flip side, getting the kids loaded up into the bike and going to the parks that are on safer routes feels like much less of a burden than getting into the car, and we go to them much more frequently.
James Schiffer
First and foremost for the memories. It is hard to convey the value of these memories in writing. Don’t get me wrong – we do drive a car around as a family and have memories doing so. But for numerous reasons riding a bike generates amazing memories at a much higher rate than driving a car. I think this is because I am generally more happy / less stressed while riding a bicycle. Maybe for some it is fine, but I find driving around cities and suburbs puts me more on edge and drains an outsized amount of mental energy due to traffic, parking, and risk. I think my kids and certainly my wife pick up on that and it ends up coloring those outings. There are still issues with biking places, but the consequences are so much less and in general it feels more relaxed and fun to me.
The bicycle is a very humble and simple machine that cracks wide open the world around us
Secondly it is to teach my children practical skills that facilitate a love for life and independence. A sense of direction, assessing risk and reward, problem solving, value of preparation, and most of all that feeling of wind and speed. My 4 year old daughter can lead the way to every single daily or weekly destination near our home on her 16” pedal bike. She plays imagination games or shows me her “tricks” while doing so, grinning from ear to ear. Having a bakfiets that can carry our 1 year old son, her, and her bicycle helps immensely and removes negative experiences. I think it won’t be long before she will be able to outride me if it keeps her interest. The bicycle is a very humble and simple machine that cracks wide open the world around us. Given a sweet potato and a bike, it’s amazing how far one can get. No matter how much or little they choose to engage with it long term, I know they will get a good return on their investment of time and energy.
Thirdly, it’s socially responsible transportation. I had always avoided thinking about the state of the world and humanities future too much just because it was always so depressing. Having children made me face the future and the numerous ethical dilemmas of my actions and lifestyle. I can’t just raise them continuing on with all the same shortsighted behavior and expect them to fix everything when they inherit the earth. It’s amazing the number of looming existential threats that can be helped by simply not driving to places less than 3 miles away: climate change, housing crisis, obesity, depression, etc. Yeah, there is still a lot of other stuff to do – but biking is easy low hanging fruit.
It was initially first and foremost about climate change. As we rode, I realized just how much I cherished those experiences and how much different going out felt. What started as a “Don’t drive to places less than 3 miles away” as a restriction on my lifestyle has evolved into the preferred and default option. Some of that might be how easy the bakfiets make day to day tasks like family grocery or home depot runs. I have especially loved the Urban Arrow rain solution. It can be raining cats and dogs and we will all be comfortable and dry through hour-long rides. Good wet weather solutions turn trips by bike into the best option year round.
Shawne Martinez
The main reason that I am car-free is so that when the effects of climate change are so extreme that they can no longer be ignored by most people, my daughter will know that I did everything in my power to reduce the burden that our choices have created for her and her generation. 40% or Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions are from the transportation sector. Reducing or eliminating car trips is something that we all can do immediately to reduce the effects of climate change.
I like to say that the first step in my “radicalization” of being car free was just after my daughter was born and I was trying to push a stroller through our neighborhood with no sidewalks or bike lanes. We had to walk and roll in the car lanes everywhere we went which made me realize how dangerous our infrastructure is for people outside of cars.
Once I learned how terrible diesel emissions are (for children in particular) I felt extreme guilt for driving the pickup truck that I had been driving for years as a commuter vehicle.
Once I learned how terrible diesel emissions are (for children in particular) I felt extreme guilt for driving the pickup truck that I had been driving for years as a commuter vehicle.
In 2016 I built my own bakfiets cargo bike by welding two bikes together in anticipation of participating in the Disaster Relief Trials in Portland. DRT opened my eyes to the cargo bike scene!
When the kiddo started preschool, I challenged myself to bike 10 miles each way to the Tualatin Hills Nature Center from Tigard. We rode on our homemade cargo bike as much as we could. Driving a big stinky diesel truck to a nature center seemed wrong and I wanted my daughter to have fond memories of biking to school. It turned out to be easier than anticipated so we didn’t drive much at all!
As my kiddo grew she was getting heavier and I was getting older. Climbing the big hills home was getting tough. I decided to go all in and get an electric cargo bike. This purchase proved that I didn’t need a truck (or car) at all. Anything that exceeded the cargo bike’s capacity could be delivered for free or at a small cost. Any excuse that I could think of to not bike was shattered.
Soon after I sold the truck and went completely car-free. We’ve biked over 25,000 miles on cargo bikes and use public transit often. I’ve saved thousands of dollars over the years which can be put towards fun experiences instead of car payments and associated costs. We are happier and healthier without a car!
