Thursday 1 August 2013

Dirty Detours on the Road to Salvation.

Y'all know I'm a dirty girl.  


I look dirty. I think dirty, I talk dirty, I act dirty.

And I'm a firm believer in the Hermetic Creed, too.
You know:
As above, so below.
As within, so without.


So look out Monica Lewinski: I suck really good wheel.  

The best races aren't always the presidential ones. My favourite ride, a Lynskey Ti baby, resides in my bedroom closet, (as close as possible to my bed, for sweet dreams sake. ..:) That means every time I'm ready to mount her I have to drag her through the kitchen and out the back door.  Sometimes it gets messy, with chain-ring grease begriming my jersey.  I'm good with it, though.  It's worth it. That sweet ride is my happy pill, and besides, I own it, my dirtiness.

I cherish it.
 Pretty soon I'll have a full-on chain-ring-camo jersey.


And I'll even be able to say "I made it myself," which makes me feel special. 
(Mum always said I was special, and that's why I have to wear a helmet.)

It's a work in progress, the chain-ring-camo thing, but look out.  It'll be giii-normous one day soon, the next big thing. Yep. It's going to be hot hot hot... like  summer sunshine. Mmm ... like those scorching, sizzling hot sunny summer days that make you want to head for the nearest beach to rip your clothes off and have a paddle in the big puddle.  I can't remember what sizzling hot feels like, because I live in Vancouver, where the average temperature in the summer is a whopping 20 C (68 F). In the peak of our two-day heat-wave back in the beginning of July, we barely cracked 30 C (86 F).  But whatevs. We just had the sunniest ever July on record in Vancouver, which is great if you like sunshine like I like sunshine.  

And you're talking to a dirty girl here.  I may not be a minimalist, but I sure am simple, and when it comes to taking my clothes off, any excuse will do.


Like taking a dip in a novel watering hole.
Here's a hole you probably didn't think you could go paddling in, but never say never, eh?

CTV
You are looking at a screen-shot of the feed from the camera trained on the weather buoy at the North Pole.
I hear Club Med is planning a new Top-of-the-World resort here, with activities led by Santa's Helpers, and entertainment featuring all sorts of wonderful, pole-dancing Elvish impersonators.  
Better book your tickets now.

All of this warm, dry weather necessitated a few late-afternoon trips to the sea-side, 
and on Sunday, Third beach was a shoe-in.


We rode there, of course...


but we weren't the only ones.


The beach was brimming with beautiful babes!


And babes on bikes!


And boys watching babes on bikes.


Not to mention nearly every kind of bicycle known to man. 


Cruisers, hybrids, road-bikes and rentals,


if you can pedal it, chances are someone rode it here.


It's anybody's guess how well the new gravel bikes will do with this crowd,


but there's definitely a market for a dedicated sand bike.
Er... and WTF?
I just don't get it.  I've never hung out at Third Beach before, and I didn't tell anyone
 I was going to be there either.


How could they have possibly known I was coming?
Clever clogs.
Seriously.
They've actually figured out that when you build it, they will come.
Vision Vancouver discovered that when you build a segregated bike lane, you benefit local businesses, calm traffic, decrease congestion and increase the uptake of cycling, and thus the health and vibrancy of a community as a whole. 

All the usual protests are in reality for naught.  
Are you worried about business along the bike lane corridor? 
 Never fear!
support local businesses.  They found all sorts of benefits.  Read it for yourself.  Sure the actual construction is a bitch.  Meaningful change is always uncomfortable at first.

Isn't it?

Plus, it's easy to stir the pot when it comes to people and their cars. Major news media are funded by commercial sponsors.  It behooves the (Petrochemical) powers that be that people remain trapped inside their cars, and dependent upon their products, so you will be hard pressed to find a major news corporation which consistently and conscientiously supports cycling infrastructure.  But never mind; there are exceptions.  Like the Globe and Mail, for example, which recently printed an article by former councillor Gordon Price, in which he advises Vancouver drivers to relax.

And besides.
 "There is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come." (Fuller) 
And there you have it in a nutshell.  This particular change is inevitable.
Deep down inside, everybody knows it's time to shift to sustainable power and practices.
That means that building more bike lanes is actually the road to salvation.

Bikes make sense. Furthermore, cycling infrastructure is a fiscally conservative investment.  I wish more people would wake up and see the truth of it.  I wish they understood and embraced the many advantages of cycling culture, but the resistance to change remains strong, and passionate.

I'll tell you what I see.
I see a reason to celebrate.  I see cause to stop and maybe have a long, tall, cool drink, 


and a toast to taking the long, bird's-eye view.


Soon a cyclist will be able to travel from here on Third Beach, 
around False Creek, past Kits Beach,


and straight through to Spanish Banks all along the seaside, if they wish.  It's not exactly "as the crow flies,"
but it is a great big, direct step toward our goal of becoming the world's greenest, most sustainable city. Some people think it was a dirty trick, to approve the bike lane when some people were loudly objecting to it, but we do owe it to future generations to quit with the petro-chemically addicted transportation policies already.  This decision came none too soon.

And besides.
Dirty is a good thing.  My dirty nature keeps me young at heart, and I share my attitude with a successful bike blogger you might know.  Dirty, from Drunk Cyclist is stopping over in Vancouver in early September, and together we're going to "Drink whiskey and be awesome," as I show him around the bike lanes in our fair city.  Heh heh.  This is going to be fun.
I'll let you know how it goes!

4 comments:

  1. This past Sunday me and a few friends embarked on a sunrise ride through Brooklyn to Brighton beach. Upon our arrival a little before 6:00 a.m. we found that we not the only ones at the beach. Brie was eaten. Wine was drunk. We watched the beach wake up.

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  2. Yeah, but did you ride dedicated sand bikes once you got there? Hmmm?

    It sounds like Saturday night was quite the night, judging from the contents of your picnic!

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  3. ...your new pizza "i made it myself" boyfriend looks like a real charmer...

    ...vancouver looks to have a decent cycling infrastructure but i hope the future evoles to the point where you have even more to crow about...

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    1. ...whoops...meant to say "evolves"...

      ...an "evole" is a small furry, mouse-like rodent with an i-phone...

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