Let's Go Ride a Bike - Part 3 of 5

I've always wondered why people hate bicycles so much. I hated bikes because I thought they was part and parcel of a lifestyle I didn't agree with or owned by people that dole out car-hating sermons at the honk of a horn. It was only on my second day in Berlin that I was on a walking tour and the guide was telling us about the Night of Broken Glass and this girl biked past us. She was fashionable in the way only Berliners can be fashionable and I was all like, "Huh, I guess bikes are just another form of transportation." The next spring I bought myself a bike and it's my favourite thing in the world.

I still hate most cyclists though. Like the bikers wearing helmets while weaving through pedestrians, or the bikers who smoke or talk on the phone while in the middle lane. And it's like every bike courier out there reeks of humidity (except for the bike company we use at work, they never smell and they're o so nice). O ya, and what about those cruisers? Who buys bikes with just one speed (unless it's a BMX because then it's obvious you're buying it for street cred)? And if you have a bike with one speed should you really be on the road? No, those bikes are only for the sea wall.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that there's a lot of animosity between the car drivers and bike riders. But cyclists can't hate automobiles. No one will take you to the hospital on a bike. You can't move with a bike. You can't drop your sister off at the airport on a bike. We need cars. We don't need as many cars as we have now but we need do need a few. So, let's try to get to know one another and live in harmony. And I'm not talking about the kind of harmony I experienced yesterday at Dan's house: If you like breaks you play your music upstairs, if you like electro stay downstairs - that was cool and all but it's not real harmony).