I have this cool sister-in-law who sends me links she thinks I may find interesting. Not being a rabid cycling web surfer, she often finds stuff I haven't seen in my own online stumblings.
I have no desire to restart the ever-smoldering debate on helmets and helmet laws on this web site. Do what you want. Preach what you want. Quote whatever statistics you want. I don't care. Since even mentioning helmets seems to restart cranky debates, please know that if you must opine about it in the comments, knock yourself out, but I am staying out of this one. My sister simply found this interesting and so do I, so here's a link or you could also click the image below to go to the article.
I haven't been meeting many Monday deadlines over the past couple of months. Life and family trumps blog, which is as it should be, I know. Just the same, I hope to be getting my blogging groove back soon.
Does Bike Paint Man Speak to You? What does he say?
R A N T W I C K 
8 comments:
Imagine some rabidly pro or anti helmet rant here.
Seriously, I think you mostly have sensible readers that don't come here to rant about helmets.
Some of the comments were very interesting, particularly the implication that riding IN the bike lane was even more normative than the helmet thing.
I agree those comments were worth reading too.
I also agree that I have sensible readers who wouldn't bother with a helmet rant... but I had just come from reading a different thing that had spun out into that rabid discussion yet again and was feeling a little thenthitive.
It's funny you ask 'Does Bike Paint Man speak to you?'
I actually had a great deal of occasion to think about Bike Paint Man while I was in Florida. I noticed that he appears in all the Floridian bike lanes as a sedate fellow, sitting bolt upright on what I assume is either a hybrid or a mountain bike. He doesn't appear to be going very fast (which struck me as totally out of keeping with Florida's approach to getting from Point A to Point B).
After noticing that, I realized I had never really paid attention to what our Louisvillian Bike Paint Man looks like, and whether he sends a different message here than he does in Florida.
I suppose that the most interesting bit of intel here is that I have never, ever actually bothered to pay attention to Bike Paint Man while actually on a bike, but while driving I not only noticed him frequently, but thought about him a lot.
Weird.
Oh -- in a similar vein, I *have* noticed that the standard Crosswalk Man looks like he needs a cane. We also have a Jogging Lane Sign Guy here in Loutown who looks like he's wearing a Speedo and either diving or tripping over something. This makes me think that our south-end jogging lane is probably for triathletes only.
Interesting.
I've gotten a kick out of some of the painted bike lane guys around here lately, too. As summer construction goes on, I'm seeing some various-colored circles in a few places on the road, probably indicating some kind of utility line.
Occasionally, they line up with the bike lane guys in such a way as to make it appear they have a halo! Suddenly it's not just a guy on a bike, it's an *angel* on a bike. Always makes me smile.
Hmmm. Our bike lane symbols on London Ontario feature a riderless vehicle. I think I like that way. No hidden messages from "the man" about who should be riding it. Unless it means nobody should be.
Hmm, it could be a conspiracy against "comfort bikers"... Those new images seem to feature a road biker and the old images seem to feature a more upright comfort biker.
Bike Lemming put his finger on it - it's those DURN triathletes working on their conspiracy to take over the world!
Post a Comment