Have I mentioned how deliriously happy it makes me to cycle through the neighborhood? This despite the fact that the bike is old, creaky and a little small for me, and despite the fact that all my American road safety expectations fly out the window. Helmets? Signals? Lights for when it gets dark? For that matter, rules about which side of the road to go on, or whether to give way to pedestrians, electric bikes, cars or buses as you're ambling diagonally through an intersection against the light? It seems a free for all, the more dramatic when it gets dark and you're almost grateful the motorcycles (and even some of the cars) have their lights off since headlights render everyone else invisible. Maybe it's so exhilerating because it's a miracle each time you get home in one piece. Or precisely because nobody gets hit - everyone, not just the bicycles, is going so slowly that collision can always be averted and, although it might not seem so until then, tracking everyone else. Maybe it's because all are colluding in the collective ignoring of official rules, participating in a spontaneously emerging harmony...
Perhaps I ought to have called this post the Dao of Cycling!
Perhaps I ought to have called this post the Dao of Cycling!
