In one ear

The first time I rode Clyde to and from work, back in September, it was a major triumph of will.

Now I have a fixed route whose traffic hazards and potholes I'm very familiar with. I know my bike better, too.

My ride in to work takes 27 minutes. Going home, about 30. It's not boring--far from it!--but it has become routine. So lately I've been listening to podfic and audiobooks as I ride. Only in one ear--it would be crazy to block out traffic noise. I'm of two minds about this, but so far, I feel perfectly safe.

There are these bike stereo speakers on the market now, which are cool but pose three significant problems: they aren't rainproof (lame!), I hate hearing other people's music so why would I subject people around me to mine?, and finally, um, porn. Hah! Can you imagine riding around with some story by fleshflutter or leonidaslion blaring out of your handlebars?

Yeah, me neither.

Sigh...

What is it about a person on a bike that gets so many people's back up?

I ran into an old friend at lunch. She asked "What's new with you?" so I told her about riding Clyde, and the first thing out of her mouth after that was, "Oh God! Are you all political about it now?"

A certain amount of (relatively mild) anti-bike sentiment ensued, but she soon enough introduced a civil change of subject.

Before I started riding a bike, I didn't love bikes. (I still don't--I just love Clyde. :D) I didn't think bike commuting was possible for me, and the people who did it seemed to be from a different, more physically-privileged species.

Driving behind cyclists made me nervous, and I felt alienated from the predominantly young, predominantly male bike culture. Bike-riders were, in short, annoying. But not in a Dr Thompson kind of way.

My old friend was just unthinkingly giving voice to that annoyance and alienation. I get that. But her views are along an unbroken continuum at the far end of which is a surprisingly popular notion that bike-riders deserve injury or death for a lack of "respect for motorists" (read the comments on that LA Times Blog post if you doubt me).

I just...I see it--with depressing frequency--but I don't understand it, you know?