Yes! A Positive Newspaper Article!

For weeks my news feed had been bombarded with articles about the increase in crashes and the horrible, horrible conditions cyclists have to live with from North Dakota to LA. Oy Vey! It’s rare to read an article about cycling in traffic and not cringe.

Today’s Washington post brings us a delightful article about the joy of bike commuting and bike culture… and the hope that this might be just be beginning of something many of us dream about.

Cycling Back Around
Four Wheels Good, Two Wheels Better. In the City, an Old-Fashioned Conveyance Returns

This is the summer of women on bicycles riding around town free as anything, wearing long dresses or skirts, sandals or even high heels, hair flowing helmet-free, pedaling not-too-hard and sitting upright on their old-school bikes…

This is the summer of men rolling down 14th Street NW with briefcases in the grocery pannier, ties flipped back over the shoulder by the breeze, wingtips inserted into toe clips.

This is the summer of bike-parking attendants at Nationals games… of a new fleet of communal unisex Treks at the U.S. House of Representatives.

Got the picture? It’s about thinking differently about transportation, riding to work and making an adventure out of the average errand:

“Somewhere along the line, we made biking a hobby and a sport instead of a way to get around,” says Alexandra Dickson…

Shopping by bike, she says, “feels more like an adventure than a chore.” The other day, she tied a milk crate to her rack, biked to a hardware store on Pennsylvania Avenue and carried home a flat of flowers on the crate.

I love that. I love this too:

The totemic two-wheeler is no longer the Specialized Roubaix Elite Triple with the carbon frame and the 30-speed Shimano drivetrain for $1,949.99, last seen tearing down Beach Drive on weekends, bearing lawyers and lobbyists in full spandex peloton plumage.

Bwahahahaha! Wanna see my bicycle?

Well, yes, this is a Specialized Roubaix Elite with a 30 speed Shimano drivetrain… and I use to to ride to work and run errands. The bike was born cargo-challenged, but she manages to carry a lot of stuff in spite of it 🙂

Anyway. I really enjoyed the article even though David Montgomery dissed my poor little bicycle. It was a refreshing break from the downer piece on the cover of Friday’s Wall Street Journal.