Barker On Bike

[barkeronbike]

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Comfort

There's nothing like New York City in the rain.

Water cascades in uneven sheets, bringing with it wind and riled-up tempers.

Humidity spikes, leaving you with the feeling that Earth is embracing you in an awkwardly long and uncomfortable hug.

The single driving thought - GET ME OUT OF THIS MESS.

Umbrellas are unfurled, hands shoot out to hail cabs, the wet and the sopping bunch into the subways - brows furrowed with the etchings of the daily concerns.

It is living through moments like these where I came to understand why "comfort" is a word so valued in New York City. We are denizens of a city constantly subjected to the elements. Comfort is escape. Comfort is calm.

And yet comfort is a word that stretches beyond this place of 8.5 million into the social and economic fabric of these States United, from anything to TV remotes to Walmart. The older I get the more I’m convinced - comfort is above all what defines us as Americans.

This no doubt is harsh and admittedly whiffs of generalization. Like I said before, I'm trying to write past my own stereotype of being 'nice' or 'pleasant'. My goal is to write honestly based on observations I see every day. Today is the day I tackle the concept of comfort and how bicycles relate.

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I've thought, especially in our country, comfort is largely the end goal. Think of how many businesses sell their products, with the word ‘comfortable’ being often used as a key word. Seriously, it’s weird, especially in realtor and house appliances advertising. I get the point, but it creates world that evades the reality of what our insatiable need for comfort is doing - which indirectly employing the factory of human suffering both here in the States and the world.

Phones "needing" to be replaced on a yearly basis (and companies designing their phones to better fit that need) got to come from somewhere. Driving our car because "it will just be quicker" than walking a mile adds up in fuel emissions. Don't get me started on what we throw away as garbage. I once saw a whole personal gym center being sent to the great beyond of the New York City landfill. 

“Don't worry though”, says the slothful version of myself, “if garbage is out of sight, it clearly doesn't impact anyone else. Landfills are the world's greatest magic tricks!”

Comfort leads to us foregoing eating well, how we spend time with our loved ones, what neighborhoods we would never live in, who we deify or vilify those on the ballot box. Because, to hell with the consequences, I want a ______.

How Does The Bike Relate?

When bikes were first invented, known at Penny Farthings, they look a bit ridiculous.

Case in point...

and this

and this, sans-Raptor!

It wan't until by trial and error (and physics!) that it was changed to what we know and experience now. It largely hasn't changed since.

I believe bicycles are one of the few industrial age inventions that promoted the comfort and well-being beyond that of the direct consumer. Most other inventions cannot speak to that level of balanced benefit. (Look no further than Mountain-Top Removal Mining as form of energy extraction in the Appalachian)

Before what I just wrote gets me pigeonholed into a typical response by those that equate bicycle riders in cities as environmentalist hipster nutjobs who care more for trees than people, allow me to ask a question (and admittedly somewhat rhetorical)

Where does our oxygen come from? Well-mixed concrete, or healthy trees?

I mean no disrespect to those creating material and industrial goods to keep civilization moving seamlessly along.  Goodness knows that I benefit from daily comforts that my running-away-from-lions-tigers-and-bears-oh-my ancestors could never dream up. (Cooled air to keep meat from spoiling? An internal piping system that kept the smell of human waste away from one's living quarters? Ice cream any time I want? Insanity!)

What I do question is our relentless pursuit of comfort in our lives as if it is our #1 jam for the well-being of our happiness at expense of everything else as if we are impervious to how the world around us responds to our choices.

Some examples

"I want pizza at a touch of a button." 

   “Why not walk down the block to pick it up?”

"Meh, they have an app for that."

"I want to be famous."

   "Why?"

"I won't have to worry about money. Then I can do whatever I want."

"I love this neighborhood. I feel like people here understand me."

   "What about the Johnsons?"

"Oh, we never talk to them. You shouldn't either. We all know who they voted for."

I've found that a bicycle, if ridden unselfishly has the distinct ability to increase our empathy that is not found in any other form of transportation (please for the love all good things do not ride in the opposite direction on 6th Avenue and get mad at those driving the cars).

On a bike we ride through neighborhoods, not across grey-scaled freeways. We hear the sounds of infants, dogs barking, and the boom-bops of music. We have to watch where we are going, knowing it is not an assumed truth that bikes are being looked out for, let alone being actively noticed.  Doing this forces our hand to truly look. 

One does not ride in New York City to be comfortable. One rides in New York City to live and breathe it. To face resistance, but see the city that no taxi-user or subway rider will see. And it makes me pay attention to how my actions are directly impacting people which in turn, develops a better sense of respect to others.

Give it a try and hop on a bicycle. You’d be surprised how much of a difference riding a bike makes. It’s like you’re floating on air. At least until the pot holes magically appear. Keep an eye out for those.

[barkeronbike]

Sights. Sounds. Smells.

It was the summer of 1992 when I first received my wheels in the woodlands of suburban Northern Virginia. Red, single speed, assisted by training wheels and the encouragement of my parents - my life’s perspective would be irrevocably changed when that bike came into my then-youthful life.

Twenty-six years later, I am still in awe of how simple the bicycle can change people minds and hearts about a place that they may assume differently.

When I began my journey as a city cyclist for my work commute in Los Angeles, two things I remember distinctly.

First, many of my colleagues and friends remained driving their automobiles. This is completely understandable. No person in their right mind would want to traverse LA’s concrete sprawl without the assistance of the good old-fashioned “four wheels and a seat”. This is the case with millions of Angelenos - making the 405 one of the most traveled freeways in the country. This dependency of driving I believe is the single greatest cause as to why Los Angeles can feel like such an isolating place to live.

Second, Los Angeles is a incredible city, living and breathing in mostly comfortable temperatures, encouraging outdoor-related activities. One of which is cooking. You would be surprised as to how many people in Los Angeles grill outdoors or cook with their windows open. While biking in neighborhoods like Hollywood, Mid-City, Culver City, Reynier Village, Santa Monica, Venice Beach - I could hear the passing sounds of kitchen sinks, laughing children, the clinking of silverware, and the saying of mealtime prayers. It was a palpable thread of connection that I felt toward the City of Angels, and ever since then, I fell in love with the city and its people.

All of these observations was simply because I rode a bike on a daily basis. It heightened my sense of Sight, Sound, and Smell.

The car, however helpful a mechanical (and Earth-changing) device, usually does not heighten these observations, particularly in cities. That’s my opinion anyway, I know the world is different in its geography, its people, its culture - and the car is by far the most effective way to travel long distances with exactitude.

I’m talking less about ease of transit and more about a way of life.

This is an important difference to make, for many in American cities still are puzzled at the necessity of bikes. “Another vehicle on the roads?” “Why would one want to deal with the weather elements while commuting?” “It just leaves me sweaty when I arrive at work!” I’ve heard many of these and other arguments towards why bikes in cities are unnecessary.

The funny thing is - every single time one uses a car - we are polluting ourselves, our familes, our neighborhood, our neighbors, our neighbor’s kids, our neighbor’s dogs, our neighbor’s gerbils…

You get the idea.

We are turning a blind eye to the problem that we willfully accept that cars are a ‘necessarily’ element of life in cities, and yet we complain about pollution, noise, accidents and a city’s blinding speed of life.

I believe there is a direct connection. And I think bicycles are the solution to this lung-filthing (new word, just invented it) problem we continue to have while gasoline remains the king of carbon-burners in vehicles.

I could be wrong. But I could be right on this. I’ve been sitting on this idea for years, but never really wanted to talk about this out loud, knowing that many people I know depend on cars for their work, for their kids summer camps, for most anything that requires traveling more than 4 blocks-worth of distance. I’m a Type-9 on the Enneagram (aka The Peacemaker). I don’t like to choose sides.

But this is something to consider. How often do bikes really cause any of the problems cars cause to cities that I mentioned above? There are statistics of accidents and “almost” accidents with cyclists being the direct problem, but much of that has to do with a gaping lack of intuitive bike lane infrastructure. If we spent time voting for policies that increased funding for more bike lanes in cities, I suspect there would be several things that would happen.

1. More people would bike, thereby removing more of the traffic that annoys us daily as commuters.

2. People in cities would be healthier physically and mentally. Moderate exercise like biking is known to do this.

3. Local economies in neighborhoods would boom as bicyclists would discover new places in the city they live in. I’ve experienced this one first-hand.

4. Homelessness would decrease (saving this theory for another post).

5. We would better appreciate the sights, the sounds, and the smells of our respective city.

Those are my thoughts for the day. Tomorrow I hope to pick up my bike, freshly repaired from a bike shop in Brooklyn. I’ll let you all know where I bike this week. Lower Manhattan and Central Park are on the list. Details to come!

[barkeronbike]

Dear self, it’s time to stop talking and start doing.

I’ve been sitting on this Tumblr name for a bit, not wanting another person to take the name. Why haven’t I started writing this till now?

My brain is the equivalent of an Australian sheepdog.

If you are not aware of that particular breed of dog, they were the ones herding sheep in Babe, a movie that made us feel for a small pig wanting to make something of his life and was edged out of winning Best Picture by the likes of Braveheart.

With that notion of the “FREEDOM” line that no doubt entered your mind the second you saw that film title, I turn to the my topic of starting “to do”. 

A few things to set the record straight.

First, I am a white American who descends from East Coast suburbia. My life before acquiring my driver’s license was spent biking through the asphalt and concrete labyrinth that were the Northern Virginian neighborhoods. It wasn’t always the most scenic, but it was surprisingly serene.

    - Which, I should add to that point, that one of my most comfortable places on the planet Earth is being in the middle of a deciduous tree-laden forest. Something comforting about being in the presence of living things that are much taller than myself. I’m 6′3″, so that doesn’t happen all that often.

Second, as seen in the tangent above, I tend to digress. That goes back to the Australian sheepdog thing - a dog whose mind is constantly on the move with an instinctual need to do. That is the dog equivalent of me. I don’t like to sit down for too long. 

Third, I am a passionate person. Out of the sheer curiosity I constantly feel about the world around me, if I get the chance to discuss a topic openly, I will enthusiastically discuss my points. Call it my beckoning back to my DMV roots, where most any discussion turns political, or at least feels political.

    - To anyone confused, that’s DC, Virginia, Maryland - not the Department of Transportation.

Lastly, I’m all about place. This is why I’m starting this blog. Places in the States are largely seen only by car. Bikes are second-hand vehicles at best, and are maligned as a danger to the city at worse. Some of that has to do with the sheer size of this country (all 3.797 million square miles of it) but I believe a lot of it has to do with the lack of biking infrastructure in this country. I want to write about my observations about how people get around on bike, especially in my current place of living - New York City.

“You’re crazy to bike in New York!” some will say. Eye-rolls and eyebrow raises from others. It’s an outdoor activity that, let’s be honest, is still going through growing pains here in the largest city in the US of A.

My goal is to show a bit of the practicality, the craziness and what cities can easily do to change the perceptions of using the world’s most efficient form of transportation. Unless of course you want to ride a Velomobile

So join me for the adventure, and go have your own bike adventure! Truly memorable life-changing experiences don’t come from surfing the Internet. It’s simply a place to store them.