Writing about cities
A senior citizen carries Trader Joe’s grocery bags on her bicycle at 2960 N Lincoln, a mile from the nearest Trader Joe’s.
It’s probably extremely difficult, and I can only guess why you do it. But thank you for shopping by bike. Bonus points for having front and rear baskets, carrying her purse on her handlebars, and not wearing a helmet. You are setting the direction Chicago needs to move in, 8 to 80.
I wonder what she’d recommend to make cycling in Chicago better.
Photo by Drew Baker.
I have two favorite photo categories from Amsterdamize’s photostream*: the first is people riding side saddle as passengers on someone else’s bike and “borrowing” someone else’s energy. It’s borrowing because they’ll eventually return the favor, to the original lender, or to a friend of their own.
The second, and the one that is more important, is photos of older people riding bikes.
These photos, and the older folks’ running errands on their bikes, help make cycling look like the most normal and sensible thing that anyone could be doing right now. And that’s what my goal is for my city.
*Amsterdamize is Marc van Woudenberg, an Amsterdammer (you know, from The Netherlands?).