France is going to subsidize bicycle repairs nationwide to encourage people to drive less. Up to fifty Euros a person, which sounds like a lot of money, but it’s less than Americans spend on gas every half hour.
I’ve been biking a lot during quarantine, and in addition to feeling good about not polluting the air, saving money, and getting exercise—as the graffiti goes, “a car runs on money and makes you fat, a bike runs on fat and saves you money”—it’s given me more appreciation for the city I live in. When I bike, I see areas of Austin I never see when driving (because I stick to the bigger streets) or when walking (because you can go much further, more quickly, on a bike than on foot).
It’s allowed me to get to know the city better, both the human culture and neighborhoods and the topography. In a car you don’t feel the subtle changes in elevation, but on a bike, since you have to make it go uphill and then feel the rush of coasting downhill, you feel it very concretely.
Whereas I used to think of Austin in terms of neighborhoods and landmarks, etc., I now also think of it as a series of creek bottoms and the hills and plateaus out of which they carved themselves. Biking has made me a better urbanist and a better naturalist.
Anyway, this country is unfortunately a long way from doing something like France’s bicycle repair subsidy, but that shouldn’t stop you from biking, and demanding your city build bike infrastructure. (Austin’s is not bad, but could be better, of course.
