Selective Luddism
I was walking home this morning and had a moment of appreciation for my bicycle. Even in its current state of disrepair, it allows me to move exponentially faster than I ever could with my legs alone and is even faster than my car from point-to-point in the city when factoring in the time it takes to park and walk to the final destination. Like walking, the bike can get me to the door, or within a few steps of the door, without much worry about where to park (in my case, I bring my bike inside at home lock up at the nearest rack to the entrance at school). From this perspective, walking becomes limiting. A slow drudge over a distance you know you can normally cover in a couple seconds. Objects loom, traffic signals roll through their programmed routine, and with each step I still feel an eternity away from my destination. It's much the same from the perspective of motorized vehicles. Walking to the next town is no longer a breeze, it's a day's journey. Most people laugh or question why I'm riding a bike as a commute vehicle, but the reality is that it's faster than a car most of the time (in the absence of intense wind and/or snow drifts). I think people think me a Luddite depending on when or how they run into me, which I find amusing considering the alternate persona I have of "tech guru". At least I have some people fooled.
While watching a Cycle World podcast on carburetor tuning, they used the term "Selective Luddite" when describing why one of the hosts likes carburetors but is fed up with points ignition systems. Host Mark Hoyer described it as "how much BS can you cope with or ... somehow need to cope with" when it comes to using a more manual or outdated tech in relation to a modern solution. I found the idea very validating, especially with my internal struggle to do things in a DIY fashion. At some point I need to give up and appreciate the relatively cheap, ready-made solution for what it is, a time savings method that affords me more time to tinker on the fun stuff. I've been doing this all along but never thought of it in direct terms. Circling back to my biking experience, is that Selective Luddism? I think maybe, at first, but once I've seen the real speed benefits I don't think so. On the other hand, one might say that if that alone was a priority, I should have an e-bike. I don't oppose that at all, honestly, but it's out of my price range at the moment. I think putting money that would otherwise go into my car into an e-bike would be Selective Luddism in my case in the US. Outside of my daily commute, I do need a car if I want to go anywhere in a meaningfully quick amount of time. And, I sometimes need a way to get from A to B without getting too dirty. I still need to get a bus pass, but Detroit's own lack of technology adoption for public transit makes it more of a hassle than I feel it's worth.
All of this is to say that I think bikes are marvelous but maybe take away more of the walking experience than we realize, modern tech is cool even if I have a desire for some analogue aspects in the experience, and I'm a Selective Luddite.
Created: 2025-04-10