Some of the happiest, most liberated people I know ride bikes. For fun. For exercise. For transportation. They get to experience the lambent air at twilight, find just the right parking place, ride under a canopy of trees and clouds. I know. I know. It’s dangerous. Drivers are unconscious. They’re scatterbrained. Their heads (and their eyes) are on their screens. They’re in a hurry. In their bubble of a vehicle, they think the world belongs to them.
Our grand and glorious city leaders don’t help. Their minds are elsewhere, too. They talk a good game but when it comes to transportation and budgets it’s mostly about cars and trucks and road repair and SPLOST, that mysterious special purpose local option sales tax. City Council spends more time on liquor license renewals than the needs of ordinary human beings; at least that’s what I see when I tune into the city’s government channel.