While you’re hypertensive in traffic listening to NPR, I have seen dolphins frolicking (and homeless men fighting over a shopping cart); I’ve smelled the taco trucks and heard all the languages of kids playing at morning recess. I sweat and shiver; I feel elation and real fear. In short, I feel alive. And so I ride. — Los Angeles Magazine
Despite its annoyances, difficulties, and outright dangers, Peter Flax's take on bicycle riding in L.A.—prompted in part by the city's recent decision "to create hundreds of miles of new protected bike lanes, shrinking some streets in the process"—combines a reporter's clear-eyed sensibility with an enthusiast's joy. In what is apparently an all-too typical encounter, he describes an incident with a dangerous driver: "Once, on Curson near Pico, a black Mercedes swerved into my path and the side mirror grazed my hip. I rolled up to the guy’s driver’s side window at a red light; he had his phone on his lap, watching a video. Without saying a word, I just rode away, bewildered and angry."
Want to read more on bicycling developments in L.A. and beyond? Click below:
• LA Gets its First Parking-Protected Bike Lanes
• From California to Texas, car culture is losing its monopoly
• Protected bike lanes strengthen city economy, report finds
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