Tour de Ghetto Part 1

More people are riding bicycles in Los Angeles. I'm sure of it.

At least down my street. As I stare out the large picture window of my home office, lost in composition, cyclists pedal past.

I don't think our transit woes can be solved by cycling. Commute distances, site visits, the need to transport materials, wear a suit, foil the flywheel. It's also hard for many to feel secure cycling around LA, or any big American city for that matter.

Nor do I think buses are the answer. Sure they're a more efficient use of resource, ferrying 35; but nothing interrupts traffic flow like a bus, tying up the right hand lane with constant stops and slow starts. City driving rule number one is don't get caught behind a bus.

I'll get nasty notes from the bus riders union now, inverting the status quo (a most endearing quality), faulting instead--and perhaps accurately--the urban haute bourgeois and the auto obsession. They don't strike me as much of a union though, maybe a band or a brotherhood or a loose confederation or something.

I'm riding a bit more myself, mostly along the Ballona Creek (see images), to the beach path, South and North, with a stop for food. Sure my gasoline bill has gone down, but my Cliff Bar bill is way up.