Sunday, May 23, 2010

Traveling By Bike vs. Flying

I traveled to Washington DC last week on business and Jenny was able to come along. While we were there we talked a lot about taking some long distance bike trips in the future instead of flying or driving to a destination.

While we were sitting in the airport waiting out a 2+ hour flight delay I came up with the following list of advantages of traveling by bike vs. flying.

  1. No extra charges for bags.
  2. Wearing lycra is acceptable if you're riding a bike
  3. Delays are never caused by weather in a city a 1000 miles away
  4. Fresh air vs. Recycled air. Tough choice
  5. By bike I can eat Snicker bars and drink Gatorade all day long and still lose weight
  6. It's tough to get a tan when you're flying
  7. You never have to remove your shoes, walk through a metal detector or get swabbed for bombs before you depart on a bike trip
  8. They don't sell Velonews in any of the airport book stores
  9. Water bottles aren't prohibited on a bike
  10. Launching snot rockets is NEVER acceptable on an airplane

In flying's defense there were a couple of advantages that I could think for flying
  1. Your bike seat doesn't make a very good flotation device in the case of a water landing
  2. Barf bags are typically not available on a bike ride.
I'm not totally ruling out flying but I'm seriously considering some bike touring in the future.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

On a bicycle, you're much less likely to spend hours sitting next to a screaming child.

On a bicycle, you can always use your cell phone. I don't know if this is a positive or a negative.

Jenny-Jenny said...

To be able to go to the places I want to ride my bike... I'm going to have to get on a plane first.

On a bike, detours enhance the adventure. On a plane, they're an annoyance.

On a bike, soaring downward is exhilarating. On a plane it's downright scary.

On a bike people think your goofy grin is cute. On a plane they wonder what's wrong with you.

Kokorozashi said...

LOL, this makes me want to add barf-bags to my commuter/touring bike's bar setup. Perhaps I could add a 'BikeMall' magazine to read while waiting for clearance to 'launch...'

I might, however, charge myself for excess baggage while riding the road bike :)

"On a bike, soaring downward is exhilarating. On a plane it's downright scary."

Right-on, Jenny-Jenny!

Jeff said...

Barf bags might not be available on your bike, but if you're cycling the world is your barf bag.

Anonymous said...

Disadvantage to cycling: No free peanuts or pretzels (though depending on your flight those may not exist on the plane either.)

However, I am failing to see how wearing lycra is an advantage. I do like my cycling shorts, but I don't exactly ride my bike just for the privilege of wearing them.

The Old Bag said...

snot rockets on an air plane....

...

>:-)

Judith said...

Wow your blog looks fantastic.....does that now give away how long it has been since I last really looked at blogs.....love all of the links to older posts and everything.....barf bags on a bike???lol

Groover said...

On a bike, your carbon footprint is minimal.

:-)