When Things Return To "Normal"

Yesterday, this article caught my attention.

Since 2010, cycling fatalities have been on the rise as driver and passenger fatalities have reached all-time lows.  During the decade, the number of cyclists has increased.  So has the number of motor vehicles on the road.  Those trends, in themselves, may not be considered causes in the increased number of cyclist deaths.  

One factor, I believe, is that drivers are more distracted:  If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone looking at a screen instead of the street, I could rescue Mavic.  I have also experienced increasing hostilty from drivers, who sometimes resent cyclists whom they see as privileged, entitled or any other negative stereotype you've heard about milennials. (All right, I still don't see what's the big deal about avocado toast.)  Moreover, at the risk of seeming as if I'm stereotyping, I think that the rise of Uber, Lyft and other ride-share companies has put more reckless or simply bad drivers, and unsafe cars, on the road.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, most streets have been blissfully free of traffic. So, it will be interesting to see how statistics from March and April of this year compare with the same months of recent years.  Will there be fewer injuries and fatalities?  And, if there are, will the unfortunate "normal" levels return once traffic becomes as dense as it was before the shutdowns?

Then again, I wonder whether traffic will return to previous levels.  Some companies might decide that people who are working from home can continue to do so--or that they don't need those employees after all.  If that happens, I hope all of those newly-displaced workers don't become Uber or Lyft drivers!

Acceptable Behavior During A Pandemic

As of today, the two countries with the most COVID-19 cases are...the United States and the United Kingdom.

Does that mean speaking English is a risk factor?*

Seriously, as some countries relax their restrictions and others impose new ones (or re-impose ones they'd just struck down), people debate about what constitutes acceptable public behavior during the pandemic.

Thankfully, cycling not been prohibited here in New York or, to my knowledge, any place else in the United States besides Puerto Rico.  Really, as long as we keep our "social distance" (two meters or 6 feet) and don't spit or fling our sweat, we really don't pose any more a risk than, say, someone walking a dog or pushing a shopping cart full of toilet paper.  

On the other hand, what's allowed in public parks or beaches--if they're open--varies widely.  One of the big debates in places like Florida seems to be whether sunbathing should be allowed. When restrictions were imposed here in the Big Apple, they included a prohibition against basking in solar refulgence.  At the time, they seemed academic because, well, March weather in the Rockaways is, shall we say, a bit different from conditions that prevail in Ormond Beach.  

Actually, our winter was quite mild right up to the end, with scarcely any snow.  Some of us have joked that just we can't tell one day from another, thanks to lockdowns, we also can't distinguish one season from the next.  

So how do you know whether or not to sunbathe, if it's allowed?

This woman seems not to care.  The funny thing is that while some people weren't keeping their social distance from each other, I am the only one who broke that protocol with this sunbather.

To be fair, she's reposing in an intersection near Court Square in Long Island City.  Not many people walk by and because it's near entrance ramps for the 59th Street Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, cars don't stop or slow down.  I think only I, in the course of yesterday's ride, stopped to see her.

She wasn't worried:  She knew I wouldn't admonish her for sunbathing--or social distance.  Perhaps she knows that cyclists aren't judgmental, except toward other cyclists who aren't wearing or riding what they "should".

At the end of my ride, I met with someone who prefers the warmth of a human body to that of the sun.

*--I ask this question in jest, of course!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day.

Well, I hope it's as happy as it can be.  As you know there is a situation--the COVID-19 pandemic--that only an epidemiologist (or, perhaps, a certain kind of science fiction writer) could not have imagined a year ago.

Also, this is my first Mother's Day without my mother.  Our relationship was often complicated and fraught when I was younger, but we grew closer, and she was supportive, in various ways, during my gender transition/affirmation.

I know one thing:  I would have called her.  She would have thanked me for the flowers or whatever I sent her and say "You didn't have to do that."  And she would have asked what kind of weather we were having here in New York and, if it wasn't cold and rainy and windy (as it was the other night and yesterday morning), she would have told me to go for a ride.