Great Moments in Advocacy / Election Day

Election day, and I was riding my bike to work. I do that a lot—a typical week I do 60% of getting there and back on people power. It's fun, challenging, often social. You should try it, for real. Places are closer together than you think, and a lot of times you can lock that bike up a lot faster than you can find a parking space.

See, that there, that's as close as I ever get to bicycle advocacy. Bikes are the solution to so many things, our nation's obesity epidemic, heart disease, even depression and anxiety disorders, all these things respond to exercise.

You don't even need climate change to make the case. I'm a skeptic on that one, by the way, much to the annoyance of my wife and quite a few of my friends. It's not impossible: the climate isn't static and never has been, and you can't believe in the butterfly effect and then say a few billion people driving cars and turning on air conditioners has no effect at all.

But to claim that something that comprises less than 4/10 of one percent of the world's atmosphere (carbon dioxide—it's a trace gas, look it up) is the driving force behind a trend is a bit of a stretch when you look at ocean cycles (remember that 2/3 of the earth's surface thing?) and sun cycles and all that.

Anyway, now that I've alienated at least half of my audience, let me tell you about my great moment as a bicycle advocate this morning. Remember, this was a post about bicycle advocacy?

I have some rules I try to follow as a bike commuter:

• Be Visble: They don't have to be happy to see you, but if you want to get there alive, they better freaking see you. 
• Be Predictable: Ride in a straight line, don't lurk between parked cars and emerge suddenly in front of some text-addled bimbo. 
• Respect the Law: Blowing stop signs even when they're idiotic offends people in cages. Never underestimate the rage generated when a caged bird sees another flying free. 
• Lock Up: If you're going to turn your back on your ride, whether it's worth $50 or $5,000, lock it like it's parked between a methadone clinic and a pawn shop. If the right person spots it, that's exactly where it is.

But rules are made to be broken, right?

I was bombing the Main Street Hill towards the Country Club Plaza, and this is something I've made a study of. I know the count after the cross traffic starts to go on the Cleaver II where I can launch myself into the void and hit that intersection on green.

Usually.

There were more cars in the oncoming left turn lane this morning, and while I laid off the throttle to accomodate, the light for me was still red until right when I hit the intersection.

But there were cars sitting in all the lanes by then, and I had a choice. I could slam on my brakes and stop behind one of these jokers. I've been there before, and if you want real adventure, try riding up Main to Brookside from the plaza from a dead stop with cars wanting you to hit the gas pedal.

The alternative was to blow past those cars (between them really), which is what I did. According to my cycling computer, at around 33.9 mph.

A few seconds later a maroon Nissan Pathfinder (or similar SUV) with Kansas (I think JO) plates 831-EQA, served into my peripheral vision from the right. He passed me super close, way below the three feet required by law, then was caught at the next red light. At which point, he put his car in reverse and got angled in the lane as if he wanted another shot at me.

The light turned green and he seemed to reconsider his homicidal impulses.

I assume I startled him with my (rare, I assure you) between the cars fly by.

And I'd broken my own rules. I can't really judge a guy not giving me three feet of clearance if I passed in three or four feet between him and the next SUV, right? He doesn't know what a crappy thing it is to end up at the bottom of a hill on an urban main road at a dead stop at seven in the morning. At the time I made the judgement call, I wasn't abandoning my safety, I was holding on to needed momentum.

Anyway, I'm sure far faster than I got this blog post up, he told about a million people about this idiot he saw riding on Main Street as if a bicycle were a vehicle and then the jerk had the gall to jump a light and cut between cars.

I had to drive home tonight, though, to get Sheba back from the expensive doggy daycare we put her in when Corinna travels. And to get to the polls. It was far, far quicker than I expected, especially after my boss complained about waiting 90 minutes to cast his vote, but I'd have had a hard time getting in line in time to vote if I'd pedaled home.

For my own vote, I know a lot of people think I 'threw my vote away.' I voted for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for President. No illusions about his chances, mind you, but if the 60 million people who never vote because their vote is pointless all turned out to vote for him, he'd win the election in a landslide. He couldn't deliver all he promises, to be sure, but he wouldn't be beholden to anyone except those voters.

That ought to be worth something, right?

Nothing against the main party guys: I've made part of my living off them, from both sides of that one-party system.

I work in the printing business and I really wish it was always Election Year as far as that goes, but my interior demons can't help but play. All day, I've been thinking today how great it would be to pick a candidate you oppose and produce a piece in favor of that candidate but promoting late voting. I've heard so much about the push for early voting: If you want Romney to lose, a pro-Mitt piece with a GOTV message saying there's no rush, if you're in line before the Electoral College votes, they have to let you vote...