Reverse commute

Copenhagen in the 1950s
Photo courtesy of Copenhagenzine.com

I'm standing on the train platform, waiting for the 6:01 train into the city...it's not cold, the sky is light and it's late enough that the birds are no longer doing their pre-dawn madness drills. I pull out my phone, look at the time, and think "Man, if I were on my bike, right about now I would be at the..." Suddenly, taking the train to work isn't the relaxing, satisfying commute that it once was. I now long for an early morning spin, a productive spin, a ride down the trail, through the woods, finishing with a dash across the art museum circle...a very satisfying start to the day.

I had a very wierd experience the other day, coming home from work. I was driving B's car home from downtown. So I have to wait for a gap in the cars to pull out of the lot into 15th street. I then wait in the line of cars at the light on Chestnut, squeezing between a bus on the right and some guys trying to put a brand new, still-in-the-box 42" tv into the back seat of a Toyota Corolla. Circling City Hall, as the lane lines appear and fade, merge and separate, jostling for position with the cabs, the rude people, and the folks who don't know the lane patterns by heart, I suddenly realize that I feel more vulnerable and less in control than I do when I'm navigating this type of traffic on my bike. And it's not cuz I'm splitting lanes like a madman and running red lights at full speed. I just have the ability to move and to position myself better. And it strikes me that I feel less safe in a car than I do on a bike. Very odd.

Later, cruising down the Schuylkill, then stopping in 4:30 traffic, then cruising again, the river is on my right and the late afternoon light is on the trees that hide it from the highway. And I keep thinking about the path on the other side of the river even though I can see neither. Where would be if I were on the opposite bank now, not in a car, not idling, but pedaling along, through the trees, dirt or the bike path under my wheels? Right here, I'd be on the canal path...here I'd be near the business incubator they built at the old mill site, here's the big bend in the river...

Instead, I'm sitting in a car, looking out at the spring weather, worrying about the guy trying to "merge" into my lane, smelling the fumes. There has got to be a saner system than this. And despite my recent disatisfaction with the train, a good public transportation system is definitely part of the solution. If only Eisenhower had had a little more vision, we might now be in a much saner place...a place with more sustainable communities, less dependence on cars, a well-integrated (and funded) public transportation system...and plenty of bike paths.

Maybe some day...

Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America
who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation
planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of
non-motorized.

Ray, LaHood, Secretary of Transportation
March 15, 2010
See his blog post re his speech at the National Bike Summit


We'll just have to wait and see...