The View from my Bicycle [COLUMN]

Did you know that the personal carbon footprint of the average citizen of Burundi is roughly the same as that of a Western householder's TV in standby mode? That our carbon Footprint has increased more than 700 percent since 1961? That South Africa has the fifth highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, ahead of China, and behind Germany and the USA?

The problem is, we read this information, it shocks us, but we end up saying, so what, or what does that mean, or how does that affect me?

I'll tell you what it means to me, as a kid on a bike in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I have to say, when I am on my bicycle, I see the world in a completely different way to how I see it when I'm googling, or rifling through a newspaper. For an abundance of reasons, but chief among them, on a bicycle you get a real feel for the urban arrangements we create for ourselves, the girth of those highways, their dangerous unfriendliness - that feeling of those potholes as your bicycle skewers on the saw edge of one - and of course, the endless streams of human prosthetics - cars - swooshing by, which reluctantly, petulantly shift a foot or two off their lines since effectively a road is their territory, and a territory meant for one thing and one thing only - to speed over as quickly as possible on the way to somewhere else.

This Saturday I crawled out of bed at 5:10am and cycled in the dark, down, down, downhill to the unfamiliar hood of Edenvale, where I was supposed to meet David and Katherine, and then ride with an Edenvale group - departing at 6am. 6am came and went, the first group of riders departed, then the second, and moments later, David arrived, laid back on his green recumbent [worth around R70 000]. He used this to cycle clear across China, and some of those frontier territories that were once part of Russia. Well, he's in South Africa now.

Unfortunately we lost the group and Katherine, and did a half hearted reconnoiter of Edenvale's back roads.
Since I've been living closer to Houghton, and not inclined to venture out much, Edenvale contrasts with my neck of the woods. In some ways it is less guarded, less fortified, less hidden away. It was an eye-opener. Other parts are grim, the endless mechanics stalls and accessories [hubcaps, panelbeating etc] associated with owning cars. It has to be said, I'm not sure for how much longer I'll be haunting Norwood Mall and the foresty backwoods of Houghton and Melrose Arch gym. But while I no longer work at a certain media company in Rosebank, severance pay and pensions will lighten the blow temporarily. The same is happening in America where people lose their work but the reality is tempered - TEMPORARILY. This is why I know the full effect of this recession is still a handful of months away.

So it may not look like I am suffering, or taking strain fromoutward appearances, since it may take me a few months to evacuate my perch over Johannesburg, but it seems clear that I can't afford to remain where I am for much longer. Since I am no longer working at a very unusual south african [media company], that ivory tower of solid circulation figures, credibility and good journalism, I am steeling myself for a new lifestyle, and let's not mince words - a lower standard of living.

But it occurred to me last night, for example, that some of our habits are not only expensive, but stupid. After my cycle and extended coffee with David and Katherine and her folks [many birds flashing about in the gardens foilage behind us, and three dogs lounging around us and under a nearby lemon tree], KFC and a Pepsi must have nullified any possible weight loss from the efforts earlier in the day on my bike. Not only is junk food fattening, but supplementing that oily, preservative calorie packed crap with obesity inducing soda is paving the road to a physical malaise. [Soda is 30% correlated to obesity according to a recent study]. So cutting out, altogether, even those occasional indulgences is a good idea, not only for health, and fitness, but also because it's an expensive habit. R29 for a chicken burger, fries, and R40,20 plus an additional chicken piece. Over time, guess what the medical bills for obesity related illness is going to be,and obesity is correlated to just about every major disease out there, including brain wasting diseases.

Another expensive habit: Melrose Arch gym has plenty of advantages over other, less exclusive gyms. But plenty of these advantages are superficial - nice, atmospheric lighting, towels handed out when you enter, sleek white Apple PC's rather than something else. I do like the security of the lockers, all of which have their own keys. And the security of the parking. Sure, you can save money by jogging outdoors, and buying your own core ball and weights, but what do you sacrifice? Top equipment, atmosphere, and worst of all, security.

This brings me, I feel, to the main difference between Houghton and Edenvale. It's the level of security, it's the level of safety. There also just seems to be more suburbia in Edenvale, more strip malls and parking lots, more cars.
Earlier today I visited Randpark Ridge, which is difficult to stand even if you're prepared for the onslaught of ultra-sterile cartopias. The highways here a hundred times worse than Edenvale, which at least has a sleepy, time warped feeling. Here, you are thrust into the very worst excesses of easy motoring. Randpark Ridge and Honeydew have wide cement rivers filled with a sense of liquidated motoring. Car emporiums erupt everywhere, and strip joints and adult stores, and more and more roadside fry huts.


On the Kunstlercast I recently listened to Jim and Duncan discussing life in California, and our tendency to watch dramas about people at work. Such as the West Wing, but there are countless others. This is because, for most people - and fortunately I no longer count myself as a cubicle slave lost in space, lost in history - life is pretty fucking meaningless out there, in the sometimes ultra-unreal, real world.

Happy people are doing something that they care about, for a company they care about, in pursuit of a purpose that means something to them and probably that others care about too. How many companies are out there that you care about, and that conceivably cares about you? We care about our cars, as extensions of ourselves, but the cities and urban craters we dredge up for functional motoring is often at odds with what works, what is attractive and what facilitates human communities.

We're now entering a phase where what worked in the past is no longer working. We inherit these ugly places except they're meant for cars to run through, and I predict we'll see less and less of that. As people lose their jobs, there will be less driving, and a migration of the previously Middle Class to poorer areas. Expensive furnitire will be swapped for cheaper stuff.
The view from my bicycle is that place we're going may initially not be a very nice place to live in, when the pensions and severances are finally exhausted.