Brian LaFave of Sheboygan, WI has had enough of high gas prices, so he’s parking his truck and biking to work… for a month. Brian used to put 300 miles a week on his trusty pickup truck, but no longer. He’s biking to work, not accepting free rides unless his friends are already in his neighborhood, and taking the money he saves and donating it to charity.
From Yahoo!:
“I did like a practice run … two days in a row to make sure I could do it,” he said. “I’m not in the greatest shape. The mornings are the worst. It feels like it takes forever. I get like a mile down the road and I want to die.”
It’s a big change for someone who put 300 miles on his truck the week before he stopped driving it.
LaFave fills out a chart each day listing how many miles he bikes, the destination and the gas price that day, among other things. He plans to compute his savings and donate that amount to a charity that provides food to children in Africa.
“I think just with the gas prices being so high, everybody complains about it but no one ever really does anything about it,” LaFave said. “People continue to drive nonstop and not think about it, but I just wanted to take a stand and say, `I’m not gonna pay this much money for gas.’”
We think what Brian is doing is sweet (the charity part), but we won’t really be impressed unless he extends his project into the delightful Wisconsin winter…
Wis. man won’t buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer [Yahoo!] (Thanks, Angela!)
(Photo: Nabity Photos )
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And when he loses 10 pounds from this month of biking, who’ll be laughing then? Second SpeedyGonzalas: Shut up and ride your bike / use the bus / carpool / walk / leave earlier (to avoid congestion) / find a different job / move. Don’t accept high gas prices as the only way.
By the way, I practice what I preach – I walk to work, take the subway whereever I need to go. Take care
@Michael Belisle:
You said: “Simply living far away is not an excuse, unless you have a really good reason that you don’t live closer.”
I said: “I already drive about 600 miles a work-week (5 days). It sucks paying $4 a gallon near/in NYC, but I like my job, I like where I live, and I like my car.”
Doesn’t sound like I was making excuses.
@theblackdog: I’ll second that.
Hey, how about donating money to feed kids in AMERICA. There are plenty of undernourished kids right here in the good ol’ US of A.
I understand that there are millions of suffering people in the world, but some of them are within our borders. Why shouldn’t we take care of our own first?
I sold my car and started riding my bike seven weeks ago, inspired by a book called, “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car,” by Chris Balish. I’m a 51-year old female and it’s been great. I infrequently take mass transit or taxis and once or twice a month I rent a car from Hertz where I get a great rate of $20 a day. On those days I run farther-afield errands, buy ice cream and get large bags of cat food. I’m in the greatest shape of my life. I meet people on my bike and I get home faster on my bike (especially on Fridays) than I did in my car. With the money I save, I’ve been able to donate to my favorite charities. The greatest and most surprising advantage, however, is the extra time I save which has enabled me to start writing a novel. The reason I save so much time is I’m not running errands every day or finding places to go. Plus I have a good reason to say “no” to meetings. I bike past a local grocer every day on my way home from work and I get one bag of groceries, just enough for one day. It has to fit in my backpack, so I save money by being judicious in my purchase. I have found I can live without a lot of things that were once necessities. I outfitted by bike with extra lights and panniers. Austin is a pretty bike friendly place but there is the occasional *#@%^+ who wants to “teach me a lesson,” which brings me to another advantage of biking: it is an adventure and a challenge which means I will never live a life of quiet desperation.
I’ve started walking to work everyday. I’m lucky enough to live close enough. I drive an ’82 Mercedes diesel, so you can imagine what I’m saving. Haven’t had to fill up in over a month now.
@heavylee-again: JeBEzus…
Probably because he figures nothing is stopping YOU from contributing YOUR money in ways that YOU like? Yeah, that’s probably it.
So tell is, how much are YOU going to give out of your pocket to charity? And to whom?
@Trai_Dep: I regularly contribute to local charities that help Americans. But of course, since I don’t have that as a boilerplate in all my posts, you assumed otherwise. But just because I do, doesn’t prevent others form doing so. I wish I was wealthy enough, that I was able to donate enough money to solve a domestic need.
So instead of giving his money to the Middle East (oil), he’s giving it to Africa (charity). Does nobody support our own country anymore?
@heavylee-again: Well, those of us that give should also recognize that we shouldn’t slam how others give. It’s part of what makes giving so great, isn’t it? Bet you wouldn’t want someone dictating how you should give, so extend the same courtesy to other generous souls? Yeesh!
Say lots of people did this and gas prices dropped. Well, as soon as they dropped, people would start buying gas again and prices would move right back up.
About three weeks ago I sold my car and I now proudly only bike or take a bus where ever I need to go. I live in Texas and it can get pretty obnoxiously hot, but I’m saving an absolute fortune… and maybe even doing my part to lower gas prices for you guys!
@Leah: He also may be in a two-job family where the job are not in the same place. We live in a more rural part of the country, and we have LOTS of friends where one partner works in Peoria, and the other works in Galesburg (45 minutes by car), Bloomington (40ish), Springfield (90 minutes), Champaign/Urbana (80ish), etc. They have to either pick one to live in, or split the difference somewhere in the middle.
We both work in the same metro area, but he works on the west side of the river and I work on the east side of the river. So I have to drive to work (the bridge is not bike- or pedestrian-legal, and the nearest legal bridge is quite a bit downstream, and has non-bike, non-pedestrian access to it!!!!), but he can walk or bike. If we moved to the other side of the river, I could walk or bike, but he’d have to drive.
On the plus side, there’s a push on locally for more walker and biker-friendly roadways, so maybe one day there’ll be a bridge we can live near that’ll let us cross!
@Bladefist:
Of course it will, but how many people do you know that will bike their 40 mile commute to work?
@FromThisSoil:
Q: Why don’t you bike to work?
A: “I’m not riding my bike 50 miles to work and taking public transportation is not an option.”
Q: Why do you live 50 miles away?
A: “I like my job, I like where I live, and I like my car.”
OK. I’m not convinced that’s a good enough reason, but I’m just some guy on the Internet. I can’t convince you to move, and maybe the car you like is a Prius, but I can continue my (lonely) support of making gas as expensive as possible. Only $4? How about $6? $10? Can we go for $15?
There’s a price where sane people will stop driving H2s to the office. That’s a start. Better yet, people might force corporations and the government to figure out a better way. I like commuter rail, nuclear energy, electric cars, and bicycles.
Sadly, the free market means that H2s are safe until we’re actually running out of oil.
Big deal.
I can go 2 or 3 months without using up a single tank of Gas and I drive a Mustang GT.
I telecommute. 100% of the time.
…Go Badgers!…..
I did this years ago when gas was cheap. I sold my car and rode my bike about ten miles (each way) to work. I had a small hiking shop and I took my dog-a 100+lb. Rott mix-in a Burley trailer. It was pretty fun actually and I’d do it again but I have to drive kids across town to school. I bet he finds that after a month he’ll want to do it the whole summer.
How is this newsworthy? I could drive to work everyday but instead take public transportation. I’ve been doing this long before greedy people started complaining about gas prices. . . it just makes more sense to avoid the congestions on the Chicago roads by using the CTA.
@Michael Belisle:
I’m not really sure I, or anyone, need justify why, or how much we use our cars. I live in the suburbs and work in the city – I like it.
Like you said, there is a breaking point for everyone. My car gets about 30MPG, if gas gets to $7-8/gallon maybe I’ll consider getting a hybrid car, if gas is $10/gallon, maybe I’ll consider moving closer to work or finding a job closer to my house.
At, $4-6/gallon I’ll probably continue doing what I do, and that’s my choice alone. No one is going to convince me that gas should be taxed 800% to FORCE people to take public transportation or work local, for whatever the reason. FORCING people to do something is not really the way a democratic society should operate.
The market should work itself out – the sad fact of a capitalist society is that some people are priced out of things before others, does that mean that everyone else should suffer? I can’t afford a Ferrari, does that mean they should stop making them so I feel better?
I’m all for energy independence and greener transportation (although I’m not 100% convinced of the human factor on global warming), but watch what happens to our economy if gas is taxed out of the market to a majority of the people who consume it.
You think there’s enough jobs in smaller towns to sustain an entire population of locals? How about the people who live in rural America, which is a majority of terrain in this country? I live in a town of 27,819 people, I hardly believe there is enough jobs within 10 miles to sustain them all with all their own skill sets.
Maybe next week, starving Africans will cut back on over-breeding and send their savings over here to help pay our gas bills.
@FromThisSoil: You don’t need to justify it. Like I said, I’m just some guy on the internet. Do whatever makes sense to you. I can still advocate that you and everyone else would minimize your energy usage, even if you can afford to pay for all the energy your heart desires.
I never advocated taxes to discourage gas usage, although a reasonable increase to fund roads and mass transit is warranted. The free market will sort things out; everyone has their price; but I don’t think we should get to the point where we’ve burned 99% of the oil that exists (we probably will).
Gas is so cheap and our roads so spacious that your town is almost certainly the way it is because drive into nuclear city. Americans are spoiled (in many ways) that we can live 50 miles from where we work without a substantial mass-transit system. Rail, again, is a great approach: a well-designed system would be quicker than driving and even at $10/gallon, you wouldn’t have to move.
(I could also point out that I think the 5-seater, 1500-lb automobile on a 12-ft-wide paved lane is a ridiculously wasteful contraption to transport 200 lbs of flesh (your numbers may vary), but that’s a whole other story.)
@Trai_Dep: That’s a very valid point, sir.
If everyone were really serious about decreasing oil consumption, we’d be back to 55mph speed limits on highways (since fuel economy goes way down past 60mph).
I see lots of Hummers, Excursions, etc. flying around the Beltway going well over 80. We have yet to reach a tipping point in decreasing oil consumption.
@Michael Belisle:
You said: “I can’t convince you to move, and maybe the car you like is a Prius, but I can continue my (lonely) support of making gas as expensive as possible.”
and
“I never advocated taxes to discourage gas usage, although a reasonable increase to fund roads and mass transit is warranted.”
How else would you make gas as expensive as possible? There’s only one way – taxes. People in Europe and other parts of the world complain about Americans complaining that we have $4 gas and that they have $8 gas. Guess what? It’s almost all taxes in Europe! Last time I saw the figures, England’s gas price was 80% tax and 20% the price of the actual gas (just an estimation on my part from what I remember). So should we follow suit? I don’t think so.
I’m fine with funding road improvements with gasoline tax dollar, but I’m not entirely sure it should fund mass-transit. If mass-transit is so great, then the people who ride it should pay for it out of their own pockets. I don’t expect a federal or state tax levy on bus and train fares to help fund road repairs. I’m not saying that because I don’t take mass-transit, I do. I frequently ride the NYC subway system and the Long Island Railroad and I wouldn’t expect that my fare be subsidized by other people because I think I’m better than other people who prefer the convince of leaving at the time they want (rather than on a schedule) and going door-to-door, rather than stop-to-stop.
I agree with you about the weight of a car vs. load during transportation – 1500lbs is light for a car, that’s wishful thinking on your part. Most 4-door sedans are closer to 3000lbs these days (that’s a good step up from the cars we had in the 50s and 60s).
Anyway, we’re all entitled to our opinion. I’m sure there are plenty of better, more efficient forms of transportation, but everything is not going to happen overnight. It’s a slow process that’s going to keep occurring, probably well after you and I are gone.
@jamesdenver:
That’s totally me. I’m 5 miles away but right across a busy interstate exchange with no bike lanes and crazy traffic. I do make it a point to combine trips though.
@Bladefist: If you’re a conservative who thinks the status quo is the best America will ever do, then yeah, I guess you have nothing to be ashamed of.
There are many of us who’d dare to make America greater. I think your side calls us “liberals”.
@BlazerUnit: No place on earth that is ran by liberals is better. Check out Europe. This is why America stands taller.
I’d do this… if I didn’t have to travel through a tunnel to get to work
I feel like a broken record..
Oil prices aren’t high. The value of your dollar is low. If we all followed suit on this(which I already have) it would either force the government to make gas purchases mandatory based on a predetermined scale affected by location, income and avergage commute distances, or we might still have JUST enough freedom left to allow the FREE MARKET to compensate by creating new, more affordable fuel sources.
*crosses his fingers*
So, instead of saving the money, he’s going to donate it? What’s the point then, if you’re going to be losing that money he’d pay in gas anyways. What a fucking idiot.