Editorial

Two-wheeled transportation can make sense

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

As one would expect, the University of Nebraska at Kearney has a number of activities planned for Thursday, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Among them is a Skype conference with Daniel Wallach, executive director and founder of the Green Town nonprofit in Greensburg, Kansas, which is working with city and county officials, business owners and local residents to incorporate sustainable principles into their rebuilding process and to become a model green town.

As we all remember, Greensburg was leveled in a 2007 tornado, but in true Kansas spirit, the community made lemonade out of the lemons, capitalizing on the town's name and opportunity to incorporate wind and solar power into their new, highly efficient homes and businesses.

A "cap and trade" discussion is likely to generate more controversy, with congressional candidates and utility representatives discussing a plan to provide economic incentives to control pollution.

But it is a third project, the Recycled Cycles program, that caught our attention.

The program is designed to help students have easier access across campus quickly and without increasing their carbon footprint. As many as 20 abandoned or donated bicycles have been inspected, repaired and painted Antelope blue and gold, and fitted with a card and repair number to encourage upkeep.

They will be located around campus for any student to use. Share-a-bike programs have had a sketchy history, from the time in the 1960s when dozens of them wound up thrown into Dutch canals, to modern paid membership systems in large cities.

Perhaps such a program could be implemented around McCook Community College, giving students a faster way to get from the dorms to class without moving their cars.

With McCook's expanded walking trail, and a sidewalk to be built to Walmart this year, bicycle transportation is becoming more and more attractive -- especially with multi-speed bicycles able to handle McCook's hilly terrain.

Our community is small enough that one can reach nearly anywhere within its boundaries with a brisk 45-minute walk. A bicycle can reduce the trip to a fraction of that time.

McCook's Toybox program refurbishes dozens of bicycles each year; perhaps it could be revived during the warm months to provide a supply of simple, reliable bicycles for low-cost, zero emission transportation around town.

In any case, on many days, most of us could easily trade four wheels and a motor for two wheels and some much-needed exercise when it comes to daily transportation.

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