Publisher's Statement
Last weekend I took a group of high-school students on a field trip in downtown Pittsburgh. Since the students regularly take public transportation, we arranged to meet on Penn Avenue near the convention center. When I showed up five minutes after the planned destination time, several of them chided me for my tardiness. Though it was all in good fun, when one of them pointed at my bike and quipped, “Oh, I see why you’re late,” I was taken aback.
“Bullshit,” I thought to myself, noting their implication that if I had driven a car like a normal adult, I would have been early. I know from experience that it takes nearly as long to drive as it does to ride into town, and I would still have had to deal with downtown traffic and parking.
In truth the real reason I was late was that I couldn’t decide which bike to ride. But another small part was that I saw a friend out on the street and stopped to say hello. A real hello, replete with handshakes and well wishes. Which is something you really can’t do in an automobile.
But I didn’t make any excuses for myself, nor did I lecture the kids on the merits of “active transportation.” Instead, I went with the proper schoolyard response, which is to feign ignorance and act superior at the same time. Because you can’t expect to influence the younger generation if you ram your ideology down their throats. It takes a lot more tact.
Thankfully, the subtle approach is working. Last summer I was approached by a student who wanted to learn how to commute by bike instead of taking public transportation. And quite a few graduating seniors have come to me asking for bicycle advice in preparation for their upcoming year of college. One of my former students rides everywhere she goes in a city of 3,000,000 (she did the illustration on page 66) and yet another has gone from commuting by bike to racing at the collegiate level.
At the conclusion of the field trip one of the students approached me as I turned the key of my u-lock.
“Can I try your bike?”
Urban Velo issue #19, May 2010. Dead tree print run: 5000 copies. Issue #18 online readership: 55,000+
Model for a proposed public art installation by artist James Simon, www.simonsculpture.com. Photo by Jeff Guerrero