Bikes: still the underdawg.

Scott and Oak. No, ur bike sucks!




The Wiggle: Beer truck blocking the lane. no respect!

I was riding my bike today, (duh) and was reminded that bikes are one of the most prominent underdogs of society. The are considered a vehicle, yet they have no infrastructure on the street to support and protect them. Examples of this can be seen with the lack of bike lanes in SF (which advertises itself as one of the most bike friendly cities). Another example would be the disintegration of the current bike lanes in place - many being painted over or simply weathered. Probably one of the most enraging would be when cars disrespect the infrastructure in place by parking and/or idling in a bike lane. Bikes are also not welcomed on the sidewalk, so when lanes are unsafe to ride in, sidewalks aren't even an option (thanks for nothing!). In Japan, bikes were allowed everywhere - sidewalks, streets. It created a sense of chaos, but lets face it, Americans will never be able to swallow the Japanese way of life. Once you adjust, bikes blend into the fabric of society.

***FLASHBACK*** IT WAS A SHINY AFTERNOON JUST FIVE YEARS AGO, AND I WAS ON MY WAY TO WORK.

At the time I was employed at a bougie-diva-pet-boutique. (HEY! we all gotta start somewhere...) It was always a delight to commute to work. The first leg included my first love - the 71-Haight, which always had the likes of pink grocery bags paired with feuding junkie couples. My other choice was the sluggish 21-Hayes. Other than the fact that there is a bus stop on every corner of every block, it is probably one of the most enjoyable bus rides in the city.

However, once I got to Van Ness it was a different story. That boulevard is just cursed for public transit! If it isn't the fact that MUNI must battle the traffic from an inner city highway, it must battle the reputation of being society's boulevard of tears (same goes for the 19-Polk). There must be a Guinness World Record for the amount of junkies on these buses. These are the worst kind of fellow bus rider. These are the types of junkies that need attention, and they choose to do so by getting in a fight with the driver for not accepting their transfer from last month, or by stepping on someone, or by being in a wheel chair. No matter the case, the shape, or the flavor, these people always smelled, and would always make me late.

And this brings me back to that one faithful day when I was en route to work. I jump on the 49-Van Ness and the only seat is next to... you guessed it! My best junkie friend. When you get on a bus and the only seat is next to someone undesirable, you either don't sit down and risk the chance of offending someone, or you sit down and prove to everyone on the bus that you're a city chick and are down for whatever. So I sat down. To start off, her head was down, asleep. About half way into the ride, her head starts to do the bob and lean, and before I know it, she is all up in my space. I tried to pop my shoulder a little bit and give her a chance to rethink her decision. Nada. This bitch was asleep on my shoulder, so I stood up. And that was it, the next day I bought a bike and promised myself to never commute on a Van Ness bus ever, ever again.

Since then, I have had a torrid love affair with bicycles - one stolen bike, one totaled bike, three severe bike accidents, and about a million close calls. I have also worked closely along the bicycle movement, building connections with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and helping organize one of the most successful Bike to School Day events at SFSU. Biking also enforced my ultimate dream of making cities dense and walkable utopias, void of cars - or void of the need to depend on them.