In my short time back in portland, i’ve heard several people complain about the dangers and difficulties of cycling in and around the metro area. those people need to get out a little bit more…as in out of pdx, out of the country, out of paradise.
I had a bike in buenos aires. It was a big ol’ bulbous-tired beach bike. whitewalls. gigantic chopper handlebars. fat-man’s seat with the springs. I loved cruising around the city on that thing. It was the perfect rig for it, too. The city’s pretty flat so no need to worry about major gearage. a significant number of its streets are still “paved” in body-jolting cobblestones. Potholes abound. My bike’s huge tires and ass-cushioning springs made all of these dubious road surfaces tolerable. A mountain bike could have done the same, but at half the comfort level (sitting on a beach bike with big chopper bars is like sitting on a rolling couch. a velvet one) and twice the price. plus, they’re style isn’t urban…just say the name…MOUNTAIN bike. It’s like wearing a wetsuit to the opera; inappropriate. You might argue, “well, what about the name BEACH bike?” and I’d reply that most of your well-known beaches are located in or near urban areas…LA, Sydney, Brisbane, Atlantic City, Mar de Plata, Málaga, Barcelona, Honolulu, Viña del Mar…so it’s already a hybrid creature, it’s two most important qualities shine in both environments; looking cool and doing so while riding over uneven terrain.
anyway, the car traffic in Buenos Aires is moderately wacky. It’s not Mumbai, but it’s certainly not Singapore. Taxis do what they want, bus drivers channel their inner michael schumacher and private cars and motorcycles drive as unpredictably as possible without causing too many accidents.
but what buenos aires can claim is being among the world’s least bicycle friendly cities. Many of your major metropolitan centers in the world that are known for hair-raising car traffic also have a solid percentage of byciclists plodding along within and alongside its streets. Drivers are used to cyclists. they may not like them, but they are conditioned to factoring them into their veering and swerving. Not so buenos aires. There are almost no bike riders. It’s a city of 3 million denizens, with another 10 or so million in the metro area, and yet in my daily perigrinations i would see at most 20 bikes on the road…in a whole day! and of those, 98% were pizza and empanada delivery boys confined to certain neighborhoods. There are almost no bike messengers (why have ‘em when you have a huge pool of wannabe motorcycle racers willing to risk their and everyone else’s lives for the same pay?) and I can’t conclusively say that I ever actually saw a true bicycle commuter. (someone with a “real” job downtown riding into work from an outer barrio. Young urbanites; college students, teenagers, etc. all have bicycles and they ride them from time to time to the local store or to a nearby friends house, but a ride of more than 10 minutes is nearly out of the question.
Why are there so few cyclists there? Here’s my theory: it’s a catch 22…motorized vehicles aren’t used to them so they react to them either with dangerous surprise, indifference or resentment and therefore potential cyclists would rather play russian roulette with a loaded pistol than take to the streets on two wheels, which means that drivers remain unused to bike traffic which means they react poorly when they DO see a biker, etc.
to my knowledge about 5 or 6 “bike lanes” in the entire city of buenos aires. they are located on major avenues and their proper use is never enforced. As a result, everyone (especially the motorcycle messengers from hell) uses the bike lane as a particularly handy passing lane or fast lane. riding your bike in the designated bike lane is probably more dangerous than riding in the center lane. I’m positive that many people from buenos aires, porteños, would cycle more often and for longer save for the fact that they fear for their lives while riding. (and because it wreaks havoc on the carefully unkempt metrosexual look for the guys and the “argentine chic” look for the girls…sweaty still isn’t sexy)
For about 3 months I rode my bike around buenos aires an average of 25 miles per day. I’ve had buses purposely veer toward me as if we were in a car chase scene from mission impossible (the driver yelling and making obscene gestures all the while), taxis cut me off and slam on their brakes, while watching my reaction in their rearview mirrors, motorcyclists pass within 2 centimeters of me at 45 miles per hour, garbage trucks turn into me, ambulances pull out in front of me, and cars change lanes into me with indifference…and these aren’t isolated events. some combination of nearly all of these happened to me every single time I got on my bike. most of the time it was great fun, in a “holy shit, this is like GTA VII, ‘the king of the barrio‘” way, i knew I had to be locked in, fully alert, and incredibly paranoid just to ride a mile or two because without fail, some driver would nudge my life right to the edge.
So imagine my relief, my surprise, my joy, when I got on my bike here in portland for the first time just a couple weeks ago. drivers use their blinkers. they actually stop at stop lights. Cars stop and wave me on when we find ourselves in that “you go, no you go” situation, cops pull speeders over. Cars stay in their lanes. they don’t use the parking spaces as passing lanes. buses don’t belch out fourteen kilos of toxic metal particulates every time they step on the gas.
Every other street seems to have a bike lane. Cyclists can be seen EVERYWHERE at almost all hours of day and night. Most have tailights and headlights, nearly everyone wears a helmet. There are bike parking spots in front of nearly every building. bike messengers do their “my bike is cool because it’s a super minimalist fixed gear tiny handle-barred ode to duchamp” thing, adding flavor to the mix. bike shops abound; coops, specialty, and slickster stores. every bus has a bike rack. you can take bikes on MAX.
in short, portland is a cyclist’s paradise in a hostile world. don’t take my word for it…just get your ride on in buenos aires…
what’d you say?