Bike to work. On second thought, don't. It will mean more bicyclists on the sidewalk.I feel like the guy quoted in the "Rant" section of the Westender newspaper: "Why don't pedestrians just walk along the curb. That way bicyclists could have the sidewalks all to themselves."
Even though I've lost my taste for cyclists, I enjoyed the party hosted by the Vancouver Area Cyclists Coalition in the park on Friday night to wrap up Bike to Work Week.
The party was held from 4-7 p.m. by the bandstand in the park adjacent to Science World. A steady stream of cyclists whiz through that park. And last night in the rain, they had hot coffee waiting for them under a tent.
Other goodies were also given out under the tent, out of the rain. I had a piece of cake with chocolate swirls in it, the type you get at Starbucks. And later I had a low-sugar oatmeal cookie and an apple.
There was lots of literature there for people to pick up too. I took a copy of the Coalition's newsletter. I could see that a lot of work had gone into it. This is clearly a well organized group. The fact that they had obviously wrangled a coffee donation out of Ethical Bean which had it's name prominently displayed, is one indication they're organized.
There was live music too, by the Carnival Boys. A few bicyclists were dancing in the dark by the bandstand.The event was intended to encourage winter cycling. A Cycling Coalition rep with a gray beard invited me to help myself to coffee. He explained that the Coalition has held two Bike to Work Weeks in the summer, but this is the first time they've held one in November.
1 comment:
It's funny that cycling is politicized by so-called anarchists as a statement of anti-Modernity, and yet they tend to be obnoxious in view of the general masses they crowd off the sidewalks with near impunity. It gives the rest a bad name and creates a hostility to an otherwise positive activity.
I suspect the reason the anarcho-cyclists don't care who they bang into or push onto the streets is because they're more interested in making personal statements about their political stands than they are about anything else. It becomes obvious that the bike itself is for many of them of little or no importance in that they deliberately find and then further create "poor" bikes, those with qualities that detract from the utility of the machine itself, e.g. distended fork and handle-bars, spongy tires on pavement, cast-iron frames from junk yards, and so on, which they then load down with extraneous ornamentation of no function at all other than to "make a statement." So, when one of them crowds us off the side walk it's clear they aren't real cyclist at all but poseurs using bikes as aesthetic statements about their politics. The funniest thing is to see these people congregate with their worthless bikes in from of really expensive and trendy East End diners for grossly expensive celery soup and watercress sandwiches while they chatter about how they hate the evils of capitalism. They each spend more on lunch at a trendy diner than I do on groceries for a week. But then, no one "sees" me at the supermarket.
Bo-bos on bikes. The music by that group, though, is lots of fun. Let's have more of that!
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