Real Vegans Don't Drive
by Dan Joyce

The important thing about veganism is that it doesn't end at the dinner table. The reason it doesn't is because of where its roots are. Unlike vegetarianism, it's not a belief born solely from squeamishness or troubled consciences. Vegans are vegans for reasons other than these. High among them are concerns for ecology, health, resource use and human spirituality. Given this, it's surprising so many still drive cars. Cars are the antithesis of those concerns. They ruin the environment, jeopardize our health, rape the world's resources and desensitize our spiritual lives. It doesn't much matter if you drive a gas-guzzling Mercedes or a 2CV with protest stickers in the windows -- a car is a car, and the car culture is destroying the world. If, as a vegan, you'd rather not contribute to this, then the alternative course of action is disarmingly simple: Get on your bike.

Animal Rights
The connection between animal rights and cars may seem unclear. It's there -- that and the much stronger connection with human rights. A car is about 3,000lbs of fast-moving metal. It is inevitable that cars will maim and kill animals, and many do. On any country road the evidence is abundantly clear. So much so that I'd hazard a guess that most people who kill wild animals in this country don't aim at them down the barrel of a gun, but rather down the bonnet of their car. Of course, the car driver doesn't intend to kill the rabbit in the way that the hunter does, but it doesn't make a great deal of difference to the rabbit. In more urban areas, pets die in droves. The real crime, however, is against people. More die on the roads every year than die in all armed conflicts across the world. If this slaughter came from any other source there would be an international outcry. Yet it is a price we are apparently prepared to pay for cars.

Ecology
The internal (or infernal) combustion engine is possibly the greatest ecological threat the world has ever seen. Every one of the millions and millions of cars on our planet pumps out its own weight in toxic gases every year. The fumes contain carbon monoxide, which poisons people in the same way that smoking does; carbon dioxide, which hastens the greenhouse effect; nitrous oxides, which cause acid rain; hydrocarbons, such as benzene -- a known carcinogen; and so the list goes on. As well as the problem of air pollution, there's the unsavory fact that a growing demand for cars (up to double in twenty years) means a growing demand for roads, which means more of our countryside will disappear under tarmac. The growing demand for oil threatens the ecologies of Alaska and the Arabian Gulf. More transport of oil will make spillage more likely.

The bicycle, on the other hand, produces no air pollution and no noise pollution, and will run for a thousand miles on a thimbleful of oil.

Health
Driving, particularly in heavy traffic, causes stress and fatigue. Much of this may be caused by a buildup of carbon monoxide. The World Health Organization has noted that CO2 levels are higher inside cars than at the roadside.

The main effect cars have upon health, though, is this: driving a car means you're not exercising. Human beings are physiologically designed to move themselves. That's why around 40% of your body weight consists of muscle. Lack of exercise leads to unfitness and (this is unlikely to be a problem for vegans) obesity, with all its attendant health risks.

If you cycle instead of drive, you'll become fitter, stronger, you'll think better (exercise improves the blood flow to the brain) and you can even expect to live longer. If you're overweight, you'll lose some, and if you're underweight, you'll gain some since your appetite will increase. By riding to work you can avoid having to waste time and money in the gym, because you'll be getting a good workout from your everyday routine.

Resource Use
Cars represent an appalling waste and misuse of natural and human resources. The drain on fuel and land has already been mentioned, but there's also a drain on human labour and on wealth. Billions of pounds and labour hours are spent on making, fueling and maintaining cars. And to what end? Three tonnes of highly engineered machinery, powered by gallons of a nonrenewable, polluting fuel is used to move one 180lb human -- at a speed, moreover, of less than 10 mph in an average city. It's crazy. It's like using a nuclear reactor just to boil your kettle. A bicycle will transport the same person using no fuel (except food), simple mechanics and less than one hundredth of the raw materials. And bicycles can be available to anyone; cars will only ever be the vehicle of the privileged few.

Spiritual
The cult of the car is one that preaches covetousness, pride and sloth. Your car determines your social standing; your car gives you effortless acceleration at the push of a pedal.

But life isn't like that. It's not about materialism, and it's not about being whisked passively along without any effort. Life is about being and doing. Passivity is stultifying. Self motivation, self-dependency and self-fulfillment are good for the soul. Home grown veg tastes better than bought veg precisely because of the effort you put into growing it; travelling by bicycle rather than by car is more rewarding for similar reasons.

Practicalities
In terms of benefits to the individual and to the world, bicycles beat cars hands down. How practical are they? for those who have visions of straining along in streaming rain, here are some comforting thoughts:

- Cycling isn't hard. It uses less energy even than walking. If you've struggled in the past, then you've been on the wrong bike. A correctly sized, well-maintained quality bicycle will be a revelation. Try it.

- Cycling is quicker than driving in urban areas. Whilst cars will be lucky to average 8 mph, on a bike you can avoid traffic jams and so your average speed will be higher, about 12 mph. You won't have to spend hours hunting for a parking space either. Over longer distances, taking a bicycle by train is usually quicker than driving, and it will leave you feeling a lot fresher too.

- It rains, on average, less than one day a week in Britain. Even when it does, the increasing availability of breathable waterproofs means that riding in the rain need not be unpleasant. But if you really can't face the rain, take a bus or a taxi. If you don't run a car you can afford them.

Giving up cars, like giving up animal products, isn't easy. Once you've done it there's no looking back.