A playing card in your spokes

Wow, what a terrifically crisp morning. I'm not much of an outdoorsy guy for that I have to defer to my friend Jason, but I must say when you inhale that cold air, even with the diesel fumes in it, you sure do feel alive!

We were treated to some amazing views of Mount Rainier this morning. Tammy grabbed a bunch of shots. If you just can't get enough camera phone pictures of our commute, all the images we take end up on our Flickr site. There are a bunch there of the mountain this morning.
Growing up we weren't a family that had resources. My Mother could tell stories about living out of a broken down car next to the river and making soup for my 4 older brothers out of water and wishes. More than once my brother Terry and I spent the afternoon pretending that a plastic bread sack with a rock in it was a spaceship to the moon. With the rock inside and the end tied shut you can whip that sack around fast enough to get some pretty good hang time.

I can remember my first bicycle (well, it's the first bike I can remember). It was given to me. At the time I thought of it as a gift, but looking back on it I'm pretty sure if I declined its next destination would have been the dump. It was a smaller rusted boy's bike that had a seat post and a jagged edge where the seat had broken off. I loved it. Conventional wisdom would dictate that I not ride it until a new seat could be obtained, but I've never been one for conventional wisdom. I was Evil Knievel and I still have a couple of scars in some unmentionable spots.

We did get a seat eventually and like any young man I enjoyed the fun and freedom it afforded. The real excitement began though when we rounded up some playing cards and safety pins that turned our bicycles into roaring street eating road machines. We'd clip that card on the strut so that the card extended into the spokes and made a sharp flapping noise as you road. That, my friends, was cool.

I know I'm taking a huge risk here and I fully expect the rotten vegetables to come flying. The bicycle is a sacred form of transportation here in the Puget Sound. I know, it's big everywhere, but here it's sacred. The bicyclist is the highest form of commuter. We spend millions of dollars every year to insure that their needs are met on our roadways. Even more than that, I work in the self proclaimed Bicycle Capitol of the Northwest, Redmond. People here are fanatical.

This picture shows the Pedal Dynamics Bike Shop. This shop is part of the Overlake Transit Center. How many bus stations have that as an onsite service?

If I haven't convinced you of the risk I'm taking, so be it, here goes. If you are riding you bicycle make a decision, you are either a vehicle or a fast moving pedestrian. If you are a vehicle, then you should behave like one. That means stopping at stoplights and stop signs. No, you don't get to weave in and out of the cars when traffic is backed up; you get to wait like the rest of us. If you have a special bike lane, terrific! Enjoy that tax payer provided benefit, but please have respect for the money spent and obey the rules of the road.
On a side note, allow me to point out that the roads and all parts on them are fully funded by your fellow citizens. No, the government isn't some special agency that somehow generates wealth and resources for us to consume, it's a cooperative pooling of money. Have a look at your paycheck sometime, that FICA thing is the key to my point.

So anyway, if you don't care to adhere to the rules of the road and would prefer to have the special consideration afforded pedestrians, I'm ok with that. Ride your bike on the sidewalk. Yes, I know that's not recommended, and yes I know that there's good reason for not doing this, and YES I know it can be hazardous for the people walking there. So, if you make this choice to ride your bike on the sidewalk, here are some things to consider: You can't do this in such a way that is rude or endangers the people walking there, which is why choice one, stay on the road like a vehicle, is the better choice. However, should you choose to ride on the sidewalk, guess what? You have to act like a pedestrian. That means, when the "don't walk" sign is lit, for you it should be understood to mean "don't ride".

I know you look cool in your sleek fitting bicycle getup. Yes, the color yellow is very fashionable in a Lance Armstrong sorta way. The aerodynamics of your helmet is very impressive and you are in enviable physical shape. Guess what? None of that makes you special enough to ignore the rules of the road or to be immune from having to show your fellow commuter common respect. Please stop zipping in and out between the cars and scaring the crap out of the rest of us. Please stop blowing through stop signs and stoplights as if oncoming traffic will somehow bend around you like light around Harry Potters cloak (no, not a fan, but I saw the scene and I'm betting most of you have too so it illustrates my point).

If you ride your bike as part of your commute, I am really glad for you and impressed by the effort. All I'm saying is this, if you want to feel special while doing it, try some playing cards and a safety pin.

Don't drive angry! Drive weird!