4th
Columnist John Kelly recounts the Union Station ugly bike story:
Georgina found the security guard who had cut her lock and removed her bike. She said he told her it was ugly. She understood this to mean that that’s why the bike had been taken. It was aesthetically displeasing next to the grandeur of the station. [emphasis mine, not his or hers]
See, usually an ugly bike is a good theft deterrent, not a defacement of public property.
And on the car-versus-bike mentality that so divides us on the roads, Kelly reminisces xenophilically:
The reason I didn’t feel nervous [cycling on the city streets in Oxford] is because I knew the bus driver had been in my shoes before, maybe when he was a kid, maybe on his commute to work that very morning. When you’ve ridden a bike regularly, you look out for bikes.
Walk Pedal a mile in another man’s shoes cycling tights, eh?
Cycling on the streets is kinda dangerous, but it’s also exciting and downright fun in older parts of town where the streets are more bicycle friendly by (a) design (that predates the motormobile). I really enjoy the less common urban biking moments where the bike is the fastest, most efficient method from A to B, and not only do you keep up with motortraffic, but you breeze by them.
