Top money saving tip #1: Get rid of your car + ride a bike instead.

Seriously, a car is a money suck, it ruins the environment and it makes you lazy. Having a bike is fun. It makes your quality of life go way up… you get exercise, you smile more and it’s kinda fast.

(via thesmalljoys.blogspot.com)

It’s about the bicycle.

Yes, that bicycle.

A lot of people are writing today in their blogs, how we can change to world, and making it a better, greener place to live.

I’d like not to use so much words, but tell you about some action.

Some time ago (maybe 5 years or so), I started to ride a bicycle, instead of using the public transportation system, a personal car or the taxis.

I am not talking here about the bicycle as leisure or doing things like this (if you do things like this, you’ll have to search for tips somewhere else;-)

I’m talking about the bicycle as a transport in a big or small city.

I believe it’s one of the most effective means of transport, invented by humans till today.

It changed my life.

I am faster than a car, a bus, tram or even the underground.

I do not have to pay taxes, buy gas and oil, worry about expensive repairs and worry about finding a place to park my car.

In Amsterdam, which population is around 730’000 people, the preferred means of transport are the following: 35% – bicycle, 40% – cars, and 25% – public transportation system [source].

It means, around 250’000 people in this European city choose every day the bicycle.

It means, it is possible!

It’s more a question of personal choice.

And of wise municipal policy.

Would be nice if we, people, realise that small choices we make (like use a bicycle for transportation everyday), are worth much more than a thousand words in someone’s blog…

So stop reading (and writing) now, go buy a bicycle (if you didn’t yet do so), and start riding!

The Earth will be very grateful for this action of yours… :-)

And your co-citizens, too…

[note: 2007 image was removed from the servers of blogactionday.org so I replaced it with 2009 image...]

It means, I made 17’628 km, or almost 11’000 miles, in approx. 4 years, since I own a bicycle.

Is this too much or too less?

I remember, I was very proud when I made my first 1’000 km. And even prouder after my first 10’000 km. But now that I think of it, I don’t even remember, when I made all of these thousands of kilometers. It somehow just happened without me ever noticing.

I cycled to work, everyday. I cycled sometimes in the evening after work, in the parks of Sofia and in-between them. I cycled sometimes during the week-ends, too, on longer or shorter distances. Some of my rides were short ones, some – quite long. I cycled during summer. And during winter. In rain and in snow. On ice and in the sun. I cycled when there was fog so dense you couldn’t see more than 10 meters ahead of you.

Jeff Veen explained it very well in his post On pain and cycling.

I always feel happy when riding my bike. It’s part of my life now. I can’t breathe without it. And I’m happy than Ani shared most of my bike rides:-)

I’ll keep the post short.

But also, I’ll just let this number 17’628 flow in the air and fill me with some (merited) pride:-)