Growing Number Use Bikes To Get Around Town

By CHRISTOPHER KAZARIAN
Altering one’s habits is never easy, but sometimes circumstances necessitate a change.
George L. Sykes, owner of Corner Cycle on Palmer Avenue, witnessed that phenomenon this summer. It happened, he said, when gas prices spiked to over $4 a gallon.
That was the point at which his customers looked at the bicycle less as an outlet for exercise or enjoyment and more as a utilitarian object. Although it is a simple mode of transportation, he said, residents began to realize the benefits that riding a bicycle can have on one’s wallet.
“You can buy a really nice bike for under $400 and never put a gallon of gas in it,” he said. “People figured out that a car is expensive to drive.”
More than any other summer over the past 24 years that Corner Cycle has been in business, he said, customers would come into his store asking to either purchase new bicycles, or outfit their current ones, to allow them to commute not only to work, but for errands, whether it be to pick up groceries, go to the bank, or visit a friend.
“They would come in and talk about it saying that gas is really expensive and they were going to do something about it,” he said.
Some, he said, eliminated one vehicle as a cost-saving measure, while their spouse kept the other.
Beyond saving money at the pump, the rationale for making such a leap, includes helping the environment and improving one’s health.
Yet, sometimes the transition to bicycle commuting can go beyond that. Merilee Freitas of Brady Drive, an x-ray technologist at Falmouth Hospital, made the switch to bicycling as a way to alleviate conflicts, when her daughter, Audrey Specht, 17, got her driver’s license this past spring.
Once that happened, she said, the two began competing for the one car—a Volkswagen Jetta—that was in the household. “She always wanted the car and rather than fight over it, I bought the bicycle,” she said. “I thought it would solve a lot of problems.”
Ms. Freitas also viewed it as a way to improve her fitness, something that had deteriorated because of the demands of motherhood. “I had this pattern of missing out on the gym because I needed to drive her around and pick her up, and the timing never fit in,” she said.
So in May, she purchased a $800 commuter bicycle and sank another $200 on shoes, a helmet, a backpack, horn, and computer, which takes measurements such as miles per trip, temperature and speed.
And then she began commuting the seven miles from her Hatchville home to Falmouth Hospital, doing the trip four days a week, as long as the weather cooperated. All this, she said, occurred as gas prices kept rising.
At first, she said, the experience was daunting as she worried about her own safety, traffic, and even her own physical limitations, afraid that she would be unable to ride up large hills. “I would see a big hill and didn’t think I could do it,” she said. “It is a wonderful challenge, especially when you get to the top and, in the end, it is so peaceful.”
Her new purchase, she said, compelled her to join the Cape Cod Cyclists Club out of Hyannis, whose excursions provided her with views of the Cape she had never seen before. “The trips they took were beautiful,” she said. “It is a wonderful way to get out there and learn how to bike and grow.”
These days, she said, her bicycling is limited due to a number of factors, including the shorter days, colder weather, and that she has taken on another job as a waitress at La Cucina Sul Mare on Main Street.
In addition, she said, parenthood is another obstacle, but she has no plans of stopping. “I find that this was a good investment,” she said. “If you plan your trips and think about it, bicycling is a lot easier than a car.”
For Christiana Walford of Woods Hole, bicycling is the only practical means of transportation in Falmouth. Although she has used public transportation, she said it is woefully inadequate for people who rely on it out of necessity.
Ms. Walford, 67, moved to Falmouth roughly four years ago after having lived in New York City for 35 years. There she took the subway, walked, and ran.
Upon retirement, Ms. Walford wanted to move to a place “where I could use a bike and not have to use a car and where I could get to a city via mass transportation.
Her decision to use a bicycle is based upon a form of political activism, she said, citing her staunch opposition to the Iraq War and being dependent on oil from the Middle East as primary reasons.
She also credited her father, Dr. Lionel Albert Walford, the former head of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, for teaching her lessons in social responsibility as a child. “I remember my father taught me something wonderful in the 1950s,” she said. “He told me, ‘Take from the Earth only what you need and give back as much as you can.’ ”
It is another reason she is so devoted to bicycling. “As long as I am in the situation where I am relatively healthy and strong enough to bicycle, I feel I have a responsibility to the Earth to do the best I can in every way I can, to help preserve it,” she said.
Every other day, she travels to Stop & Shop on Teaticket Highway, the CVS pharmacy, her bank, and surrounding stores to run errands. It is roughly a 10-mile round trip that takes about 40 minutes.
When she first arrived in Falmouth, she used a men’s Cannondale bike for transportation, but last month purchased a woman’s bicycle for $500 at Corner Cycle because it was more comfortable.
The handlebars were straightened for better posture and she paid an extra $30 for a mirror, $20 on lights and $20 for a lock. She uses two canvas saddlebags she purchased in New York for $80 to carry necessities, such as groceries. The bags, she said, are copious and can fit everything she needs. “I can certainly carry enough groceries for several days and a bottle of wine or two,” she said.
She also wears a small backpack, equipped with a waist belt, and will occasionally wear a bright yellow jacket to make her more noticeable to traffic.
She goes to Boston roughly once every two months, sometimes visiting her twin sister in Cambridge, or other times to go shopping for items she cannot obtain locally.
During the winter, she simply puts on more clothes. The only time she does not bicycle, she said, is when there is ice, or it snows.
While she is cognizant that she is doing her part, she is hopeful that others will follow her lead. “I think it is the responsibility of people who are healthy and don’t have complications in their lives which make it difficult, I think it is important for us to try and not use cars,” she said.
While the bicycle is a means to an end, she said it also represents a form of pleasure for her. “I have this idea that it is my convertible,” she said. “I get to bicycle along the bike path, which cars don’t have the joy of going on and seeing the changing of the seasons and the colors of the sea. I get to hear the birds and the chipmunks in the woods and the leaves making their wonderful noise.”
Thomas C. Aldrich of Drumlin Lane is a long-time cycling commuter. A retired scientist emeritus from the United States Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Mr. Aldrich has been using the bike as his primary form of transit since 1964.
He commuted every day, initially from Woods Hole, to the Quissett Campus, using a Schwinn three-speed bicycle.
Now he uses a Schwinn five-speed, one that is about 30 years old. Its amenities include three sound signals. One is a small bell, “to warn people I am coming. A medium-size bell tells people I am a long ways away. And then there is a sumo wrestler-sized horn to warn old people I am coming because they can’t hear,” he joked.
That, a backpack and a pump, he said, are pretty much his only accouterments.
He had no real reason for bicycling, he said, other than an enjoyment for exercise and being outdoors. “Now I am addicted to it,” he said. “I don’t know what life would be like without getting out in the morning and being a part of nature.”
He bikes nearly every day, he said, and will use his bicycle for everything from running errands to going to the USGS, where he still sometimes works. Last Friday, he went to Eastman’s Hardware to pick up some duct tape.
Although he owns a car and a truck, both are used infrequently. That has led to one problem: mice. The transmission clutch in an earlier truck broke, he said, because mice were nesting in it. “Mice are dangerous to unused vehicles,” he warned. “If you are going to be a bicyclist who doesn’t use your car or truck, you need to be leery of that.”
The beauty of the bicycle, he said, is that it is “more fun than a car,” and sometimes faster, particularly when traffic ties up many of Falmouth’s thoroughfares.
He also said there is a social aspect to the bicycle, as he has met a number of “characters” on the bike path, with whom he has struck up friendships.
The only danger, he said, is in the summer when the biggest hazard is happy children running along the bikepath. “I am thinking of introducing a town bylaw that prevents them on the bike path,” he joked. “They are so happy to get on their bikes, they run right into you. You have to be real careful.”
While he admits he is doing his part to help the environment, he said that is not the reason he bikes. “I can’t claim to be virtuous,” he said. “Of course, I think it is a wonderful thing to do, but I do this because I love it.”