One thing you learn (sometimes, anyway) as you get older is to accept what you are and work with it--or let it work for you.
For a long time, I tried to suppress my inner magpie. So, yes, I'll admit it: I like pretty, shiny things, especially if I can recognize my own reflection in them. Then again, given what I've just said, a pretty, shiny thing is something that will, by definition, allow me to recognize my own reflection. And vice-versa.
OK, enough of these extremely amateurish philosophical ramblings. I accept that I like looking at pretty,shiny things and it leads me to images like this:
Instead of turning my nose up at this two-wheeled contraption (which is, however you define it, a bicycle), as I might have done not so long ago, I allowed myself to be drawn in by the pretty, shiny lights. It led me to blog, which also contains this image:
That blog, is the most important find of all: Chicago Bicycle Advocate. I looked at a few posts on either side of the ones containing those photos. The stories in them are all-too-familiar to urban cyclists: getting doored (been there, done that!), a police officer who struck a cyclist and lied about it and a driver who darted in front of a cyclist and tried to blame the cyclist for the ensuing crash. But there are also inspiring stories, like that of the 13-year-old girl who came up with an idea for a signal system after seeing a man "doored" while she rode with her mother.
In reading those posts, and others, I was impressed by the level of analysis and clarity in discussions of the issues involved with accidents and other incidents involving cyclists. I am going to subscribe to it, even though I live nowhere near Chicago.
Hooda thunk it: Embracing my inner magpie has enhanced my understanding of the legal issues around cycling!
For a long time, I tried to suppress my inner magpie. So, yes, I'll admit it: I like pretty, shiny things, especially if I can recognize my own reflection in them. Then again, given what I've just said, a pretty, shiny thing is something that will, by definition, allow me to recognize my own reflection. And vice-versa.
OK, enough of these extremely amateurish philosophical ramblings. I accept that I like looking at pretty,shiny things and it leads me to images like this:
Instead of turning my nose up at this two-wheeled contraption (which is, however you define it, a bicycle), as I might have done not so long ago, I allowed myself to be drawn in by the pretty, shiny lights. It led me to blog, which also contains this image:
That blog, is the most important find of all: Chicago Bicycle Advocate. I looked at a few posts on either side of the ones containing those photos. The stories in them are all-too-familiar to urban cyclists: getting doored (been there, done that!), a police officer who struck a cyclist and lied about it and a driver who darted in front of a cyclist and tried to blame the cyclist for the ensuing crash. But there are also inspiring stories, like that of the 13-year-old girl who came up with an idea for a signal system after seeing a man "doored" while she rode with her mother.
In reading those posts, and others, I was impressed by the level of analysis and clarity in discussions of the issues involved with accidents and other incidents involving cyclists. I am going to subscribe to it, even though I live nowhere near Chicago.
Hooda thunk it: Embracing my inner magpie has enhanced my understanding of the legal issues around cycling!
