Toronto's Midwestern attitude to bicycles drives me insane: plaything only, never anyone's vital means to commute. I mean, the building is LEED, so why's it so much easier to park cars than bikes (reality)? You know, and management has to know, there's not a few bikes in units, going up and down elevators. I don't mind using a back entrance, which I've done elsewhere surreptitiously, but my most expensive bike is staying in with me! Even the other two bikes would get covered in road filth in the garage, because there's never a wall/door for the bikes. I started keeping my cheap bike in my unit at a place for just that reason. What do people with child trailers do?LEED, so fucking 'green'. Bike racks in a shitty open parking area and a dozen unused electric plugs for cars help up the score, don't they now.
Hell, even my wife doesn't get it...
It would be nice if management allows bikes in elevators and out a back entrance, rather than turns a blind eye to what more than 10% do, leaving us to sneak around guiltily for something there's no reason to feel guilty for.
Of course, 'forgiveness is easier to get than permission' and 'discretion is the better part of valour'.
You'll tell me I should instead rent a house (have you looked at Toronto rental rates?), live in a condominium that allows bikes in elevators (few such) or live in a regular apartment building (without air-conditioning or en-suite laundry, with two adults and children). I could point out that the rules are discriminatory, and there's no way I'll damage facilities with my expensive road bike as much as people's dogs shitting do, or obesity-scooters given by the state are driven into walls by their drones hopped up on Oxycontin. I have a better answer:
Yes, that's the reason bikes should be playthings for adults but not much more - because having to rely on a bike for whatever reason apparently makes people bitter. I know I know, bike riders will say that that's only because "our infrastructure" is tuned for those evil automobiles (one of the economic factors why we we have running water, electricity, and the internet in the West) and must change to suit a world where the majority commutes by bike.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading this blog for a while - I came for your spot-on, cynical view on modern Japan. But the way you are not able to reflect on the fact that you're simply a snob whose real motivation for commuting by bike is to feel superior to whoever you identified as the "dumb masses", and not the environment or energy reserves. And it made you bitter. Has ever the idea crossed your mind that people rather drive cars because they don't want to become one of those embittered guys they see on bikes in traffic?
That's just stupid. Say something productive or post elsewhere.
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