Bicycle Fixation Weblog
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08/10/2010: "From Carmageddon to Los Amsterdam? Well, Not Yet, But...."
It was pleasing to see so many bikes out today as I made my rounds. This being Tuesday, I indulged in my usual ride to South Pasadena (across the river and over the hills, there being no woods here of course), after which i went downtown and to Larchmont for various meetings.Fourth Street, the invariable first segment of most of my commutes (my "commute" is different every day) saw, as usual, more bikes than cars on it--but even in the most car-smothered parts of town the bicycle remained a strong presence, with riders crossing my path every block at least, sometimes two or three at a time. Okay, Los Angeles is a long way from being Los Amsterdam, but still, there are bikes everywhere now, when they used to be quite rare.
The pattern persisted all the way to South Pasadena, where, oddly, I saw few bikes though there are usually plenty of them there. But once I hit the road again--bikes all around! Especially downtown, where besides the usual messengers and restaurant delivery riders I saw quite a number of fairly obvious transportational cyclists--well-off as well as poor, if one may judge by bike and clothing--and at least two old-fashoined cargo trikes, in the British pattern, one of which had been retrofitted with a very large wooden box, and one gleaming silver bike with full fenders and rack, and the cruiser bars rotated rather oddly forwards to a somewhat painful looking position. But what the hell, the guy was riding!
There was also a fellow I've seen before, a cleancut twentysomething ridign what appeared to be a fixie with a long woodsided trailer following behind, and moving quite briskly. I've seen him before, but he always turns off into an alley or sidestreet before I catch up with him, and I'm always on the way to a meeting so can't diverge from my own route. One of these days....
Back to 7th and then 4th for my ride home, and again more bikes than cars on 4th Street.
All in all pretty encouraging sights, here at Ground Zero of Carmageddon.
