I always thought of Critical Mass in terms of cars for some reason -- how they felt about it, how they'd react, how this could make them more aware of people on bikes. It wasn't until Friday, my first CM, that I realized -- Critical Mass is about bikes. (I'm pretty sharp for an old person, if you hadn't noticed.)
Gliding through a tunnel beneath the interstate, we whooped and hollered, sounding like a siren that lasted for miles and miles --
the city was on fire and could only be put out with water bottles, and the kind of joy you leave behind in childhood
I took off my helmet and tossed wisdom into the wind
It twisted my hair into knots and blew out any trace of the day
People on streetcorners called out to ask what we were doing
Riding bikes, dammit! Riding bikes...
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Imprecise collection of commentary heard on bikes this month:
-- Can I ride? and Lemme have your ride...
-- If I rode a bike like that, I'd be in that ambulance up there, bless your heart...
-- F*#% you" and variations on that theme...
-- Be careful -- there's some crazy drivers out there
-- One rock, tossed.
-- One teen, charging at.
-- (from a stopped mercedes) I love your shirt, good for you! (on my One Less Car tshirt)
-- Get your white asses out of the neighborhood (twice from the same kid trying to impress his date. he ducked when I turned to look at him, so he probably either lives on our street or has seen me around before)
-- get on the sidewalk
-- you ride that bike like it's a car. I've never seen a bike stop at a red light before. I'm not being negative, I think it's great!
-- a honk, a swerve, and a mouth full of exhaust
totals: about 60% negative, 30% positive, 10% neutral or just plain strange
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1 comment:
RBC,
That's funny. You get a lot by riding around with a bike.
In here, I rarely get nothing except for honks when I ran wide or what. Not like US, people, young or old ride bikes a lot in Japan.
Especially old people, feebly holding a hundle bar doing the best they can, need caution when passing them by car.
Japan is as big as the state of California and has about a half the whole US population. No wonder why we can do with bikes.
daisuke
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