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Friday, August 27, 2010
Summer on Wheels
I did two things really new this summer. Well, three things. The first two were biking from home and learning to drive. The third was flying a few thousand miles away from New York, leaving perhaps indefinitely. But this post is about the first two things.
When moving out of my senior dorm, I swiped a Pacific Aries mountain bike from the courtyard. (Now, I took it from near the heap of trash to be thrown out, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't stealing.) The bike is pretty standard. Shimano brakes, 27-speed. I roped it onto the hood of our minivan and drove it home. Over the next three months, I put over $200 into that bike. I fixed the gears, pumped the tires (free), replaced the clamp, bought a chain, another lock, a security cable, two seats and seat posts, and three safety lights. I took it everywhere - Flushing, DUMBO, Prospect Heights, Jackson Heights, everywhere in between.
I learned where the hills in the city were and why some neighborhoods are called the "Heights". I learned the meaning of traffic signs and street lanes. I learned where and how fast people like to drive. Where I could go fast and take my feet off the pedals. Where I could go slow and respond to a text with one hand on the handlebars. As a 20-year New Yorker, I think it was one of the last things that I haven't yet tried to do in that city.
Then I started driving, another culture entirely. Someone once told me driving depends on this field of social interaction. (If so, biking is an incredibly solitary activity.) So I learned to signal with others, watch others, follow laws and (less explicitly) neighborhood norms, and literally personify other cars as people. I drove a blue Toyota four-door on my test, but since then I've only been in my parents' red Mercury minivan from 2005. I got my first ticket. (Broken brake lights.) I resolved that ticket within 12 hours afterward. I felt awesome. Then I stood in front of the DMV judge and felt like just another law-abiding citizen.
If I had to choose? Biking, definitely cooler.
(This is a blog post that deserves pictures, but alas, I'm in another country already!)
When moving out of my senior dorm, I swiped a Pacific Aries mountain bike from the courtyard. (Now, I took it from near the heap of trash to be thrown out, so I'm pretty sure that wasn't stealing.) The bike is pretty standard. Shimano brakes, 27-speed. I roped it onto the hood of our minivan and drove it home. Over the next three months, I put over $200 into that bike. I fixed the gears, pumped the tires (free), replaced the clamp, bought a chain, another lock, a security cable, two seats and seat posts, and three safety lights. I took it everywhere - Flushing, DUMBO, Prospect Heights, Jackson Heights, everywhere in between.
I learned where the hills in the city were and why some neighborhoods are called the "Heights". I learned the meaning of traffic signs and street lanes. I learned where and how fast people like to drive. Where I could go fast and take my feet off the pedals. Where I could go slow and respond to a text with one hand on the handlebars. As a 20-year New Yorker, I think it was one of the last things that I haven't yet tried to do in that city.
Then I started driving, another culture entirely. Someone once told me driving depends on this field of social interaction. (If so, biking is an incredibly solitary activity.) So I learned to signal with others, watch others, follow laws and (less explicitly) neighborhood norms, and literally personify other cars as people. I drove a blue Toyota four-door on my test, but since then I've only been in my parents' red Mercury minivan from 2005. I got my first ticket. (Broken brake lights.) I resolved that ticket within 12 hours afterward. I felt awesome. Then I stood in front of the DMV judge and felt like just another law-abiding citizen.
If I had to choose? Biking, definitely cooler.
(This is a blog post that deserves pictures, but alas, I'm in another country already!)
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