david taus

Ride Your Bike to Work Week

music: DJ Krush- Kakusei

I try to ride my bike to work every week, and when the weather allows I do so. This week was somehow given the honor of being the “official” Ride Your Bike to Work Week, which is great. More bikes are out now that the weather has turned nice and the commute is a great deal more pleasant. I had no idea that this was the official week that everyone is encouraged to ride their bikes to work (why not make every week equally as official?) but I found out on my ride. I was flagged down by a guy with a little sign right around the Salvo and the fire station on Mass Ave near MIT on the way to school: “FREE BREAKFAST FOR BIKERS!”

Positive.

I pulled over and threw down two croissants and a banana, declined on the cups of coffee, and chatted with a few other people gathered there at quarter to eight in the morning. One guy had a blue mountainsmith day pack. Of course he did. I even got some pro-bike propaganda, some bumper stickers, some magnets, and was off. They are setting up shop in different places all week to give out free breakfast to bikers-tomorrow is a pancake breakfast at the Broadway Bike Shop, the best bike shop in the city. I will have to miss it unfortunately as I am due at school to proctor the MCAS. No matter; I’ve gotten my Random Act of Bike-ness this week.

Funny, then, that on the way home I should be summoned to the curb by a Cambridge Police officer for violating a city bike citation: running a red light on a bicycle. I was following the pedestrian signals when I rolled past the Cambridge City Hall at about 5:30pm, and Officer Ortiz blocked the bike lane and motioned for me to pull over. I couldn’t believe it when he pulled out the ticket book. It turned out to be just a warning. Officer Ortiz was standing on the street because of the crowd gathered to support/protest gay marriages (which I happen to think is way positive-a huge step in the direction of equality and acceptance in this country), as today was the first day ever that gay marriages were legally performed in the United States. News vans from all over the country were in front of City Hall, so the officers had to look like they were on top of stuff more than they wanted to give a ticket to a schoolteacher biking home from work. The whole thing was funny; I didn’t know quite how to react. I think I said something incredulous like “this is for real?” Officer Ortiz was chill, though. I told him about how it was Ride Your Bike to Work Week and how I got a free breakfast this morning. He got a kick out of that. I think I might just send a dollar and a letter of inquiry to Cambridge City Hall thanking Officer Ortiz for being the man and asking what exactly would happen if I didn’t pay a bike citation. They couldn’t take away the license I don’t have…

All in all, a successful first day of Ride Your Bike to Work Week in Boston. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.

Posted by davidtaus at May 17, 2004 11:16 PM