Someone to Know: The Entitled Cyclist

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He's trying to show that it really is possible to get out of your car, even in Los Angeles.

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By Manuela Andreoni

Traffic jams might be the worst part of the day to many of you. Today, I want to introduce you to Tom Morash, an Angeleno who got tired of sitting in his car and decided to grab a bike instead.

Now Morash, also known as the Entitled Cyclist, is on a mission to show that biking can be possible, even pleasant, in places that seem to be designed only for cars.

The name is his ironic response to that small group of angry drivers who complain that bikes are taking over the roads. He uses Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to document his daily adventures. I wanted to talk to him because, like many of you, he lives in a city where public transportation is often inadequate.

For a long time, he felt that cars were his only means to get around. His journey away from car dependence is full of lessons.

Morash is a 41-year-old lighting programmer who works in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles, where he has lived for some 16 years. When he first arrived, he used to take his car everywhere, like most Angelenos. But the city's traffic jams soon crushed any desire to drive.

After talking to a co-worker who cycled to work, he decided to try it. He never looked back. Now he always cycles the 12 miles or so that take him to most of his jobs.

Yes, cycling can be scary, he acknowledges. Drivers cut him off, text at the wheel, exceed the speed limit, open their doors without looking and park in the bike lane. "But I can't imagine choosing to be in a car," he said.

Like many cyclists, Morash said he was disappointed that bikes and public transportation are all but forgotten in the federal government's plan to transition away from fossil fuels.

Morash said it drove him crazy when President Biden posed for a picture sitting in a 9,000-pound electric Hummer. (As my colleague Elena Shao showed, an enormous electric vehicle like that produces more emissions than a small combustion-engine car.)

"We’re just changing one problem for a possibly slightly better problem," he said.

Instead of encouraging people to buy a different kind of car, he said, cities should build better bike lanes, make public transportation free and establish more bike-sharing services.

Most of all, city planners should be thinking about how to make cycling safer. It's why he started filming all of his journeys and posting some of his close encounters online. On top of raising awareness, the videos give him a tool to try to hold people accountable for dangerous driving.

Because of careless drivers and inadequate infrastructure, Morash acknowledges, bikes are not a solution for everyone. He and his wife own a small electric car, mostly powered by the solar panels on their roof. She usually takes it to pick up their 7-year-old son from school when Morash is at work. When a child is involved, he says that the calculations around tolerable risks are different.

He filmed it when a pickup truck hit him with its passenger-side mirror and broke his arm seven years ago. He was cycling the 13 miles back home after working a Friday at the Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City. It was 1 a.m., a time he calls "drunk o’clock." The driver never stopped, and he said the police declined to pursue an investigation, even though he had video.

It took him six weeks to recover. He couldn't exercise, and he gained around 10 pounds. He had to drive everywhere. "Mentally I was in a bad place," he said. "It really reminded me of why I bike."

Still, he recommends that people try, starting with short journeys in areas where they feel safe.

He found that bikes can actually be a lot more efficient than cars. First, cycling often gets Morash to his destination twice as fast as driving on overcrowded roads, especially when using an electric bike. Second, it keeps him fit. He doesn't need to find the time to exercise beyond biking. Third, he said riding around in a city with beautiful weather feels great.

Drivers may think their cars mean freedom, Morash said. But really, at least in cities like Los Angeles, they spend a lot of time just stuck in gridlock.

"I feel like the bike is the freedom machine," he said. A car, on the other hand, is like a massive rock. "It really tethers you in a way that you don't even see sometimes."

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Claire O’Neill, Chris Plourde and Douglas Alteen contributed to Climate Forward

Manuela Andreoni is a writer for the Climate Forward newsletter, currently based in Brazil. She was previously a fellow at the Rainforest Investigations Network, where she examined the forces that drive deforestation in the Amazon. @manuelaandreoni

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