Within the past few years, these terms have found their way into just about every magazine, newspaper, website and marketing campaign in Western Culture. After decades of neglect and oppression, these terms have tugged, pushed, and pulled their way back into the consciousness of the mass western population. They are used as verbs, nouns, and adjectives. They are sleek and sexy. They are the new “Who’s Who” of the glamour world and counter-culture movement. They are a lifestyle. They are powerful.

Like anything this powerful, these terms have everything to lose. Each of these terms describes a level of individual consciousness that directly effects daily choices. These collective choices yield a movement or a mass shift in human behavior, economies, and environment. Effectively, these terms are tools for bridging our daily choices to the carrying capacity of planet Earth as well as conveying a deep understanding between individual habits and external effects. In short, to lose isn’t just a failed marketing ploy or household term gone extinct. To lose, is to lose to the overconsumption and excavation; polluted soil, air and water; loss of biodiversity and genetic gene pools; eventual implosion of the global economy….it is me making the choice to turn the ignition switch of my gas burning, 6-cylinder, people- mover.

Global automobile dependency is an expanding issue that can be linked to a dynamic set of global problems. However, an individual has the power to make a drastic change to this dynamic global issue. By substituting 3 car trips with 3 bicycle trips every week, an individual is taking a holistic approach to becoming more sustainable or green. This individual is choosing to solve this global issue with a local solution.

Cities worldwide have designed and implemented policies to encourage the construction of such infrastructure, and these policies are now spreading like wildfire across the United States. People recognize that it is cheaper, healthier, and better for the environment to ride a bicycle than it is to drive a car. Freedom, along with its parent company, WTB, and its sister non-profit, Transportation Alternatives for Marin, has helped to initiate $712 million in federal programs related to the build-out of safe and integrated bicycle infrastructure across the United States. Freedom is working hard to promote this sustainable mode of transportation and hopes to inspire other to do the same.