Welcome to the People Powered Movement

Reader Contribution by Staff
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It was one of my first rides in Washington, D.C. and the tourists on the sidewalk were turning to stare.

Some dressed in spandex, other in skirts and high heels, a caravan of bicyclists paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue — and I was one of them.

Our excitement was obvious and the first reason was evident. We were pedaling down America’s Main Street, cruising safely in newly painted bike lanes. Bicycles were now visible and welcome on the same strip traveled by presidents and photographed by tourists. Even more important, transportation officials had managed to add bike lanes to a street so regulated that even the hue of the pavement is precise. Meaning: Creating space for bicyclists isn’t rocket science.

But our joyride down Pennsylvania was just the happy means to an even more exciting end.

The dangerous and environmentally destructive fact is that the U.S. transportation system has been built on one basic premise — move an ever-growing fleet of gas-guzzling vehicles, as far and as quickly as possible. That concept has spawned urban sprawl and strip malls with parking lots the size of football fields. That car-centric mentality has made Americans more sedentary, adding to an epidemic of obesity and heart disease. Perhaps most importantly, it makes us prime culprits in changing the earth’s climate. Currently, more than one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector.

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