(Photo © Jonathan Maus)Yesterday was Sunday Parkways in southeast Portland—our neighborhood. I pedaled the 6.2 mile course with Joe in tow on our long dreamed-of Futon Bike. He was filming footage for his documentary. The entire way, people laughed, pointed, and yelled. In a friendly way. Mostly.
Most of the yells were, with identical inflection: “Now that’s the way to travel!”
The second most popular thing to yell: “Shouldn’t that be the other way around?”
To which I mostly replied “No!” or “Why?” Finally I snapped and told some hapless couple, “Don’t gender us!” which resulted in nervous laughter and an increase in open scrutiny from all the other people waiting at the light.
Navigating heavy bike traffic made up of children & inexperienced riders isn’t made easier by having a 6’x4′ 200lb trailer in tow. It was mostly a lot of fun, though. A Parkways staffer hitched a ride with us for ten blocks and we should have kept her. Her cheerful attitude transformed our filming ship into a parade float.
In other news, we leave on tour tomorrow morning and won’t be in the same place for three nights in a row until October. We’ll be blogging our adventures, and I’ll be posting over at Grist about the bike economy in places we visit.
And finally, after writing for BikePortland off and on since 2006—and at least weekly for nearly three years—I’m moving on to new projects & schemes. Jonathan says he’ll keep doing a news roundup every Monday, so watch for it here.
As for those other projects, I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading Taking the Lane!