I rode my bike to school yesterday, the first time since I fell on June 24. I don't really like to drive (a car) but I didn't feel very comfortable on the bike, either. I was overly cautious about pavement surfaces and rode extra-slowly.
Oil is for Sissies (one of my favorite blogs) posted a link to a great (if over-the-top) piece about current transportation. Pretty much everyone I know is, in OIFS's words, a member of a loosely-knit terrorist organization that kills 5 times as many people EVERY YEAR as were killed on September 11, 2001.
I had a brief flash of a vision yesterday: what if all our roads were car-free? Bikes and peds could use all that real estate, not be marginalized at curbside (which is the reason I fell over) or on the sidewalk. We are so acclimated to thinking of roads for cars only that it's always a strange feeling when a roadway is closed to traffic for an event, and you can walk on it. Like W River Parkway for the fireworks on Monday night.
Would pavements last longer? You'd think "yes" but I think actually they'd sprout weeds and start to break up. Cars bizarrely keep asphalt compacted and weedfree.
Posted by otto0114 at July 6, 2005 10:19 AM