Get lit and give love!

October 28th, 2009 Posted in General

So I just bought a new bell for my bike the other day at a bike shop I’d never been to before, Metropolis Cycle Repairs. They had an I (heart) PDX bell, which I thought would be a nice accessory to display on my bike. As I watch people on the MAX stare at my city-love proclaiming bell, I think to myself “Hmm, what do I love about PDX?” I think of the fall colors, the kind people, the fabulous public transportation….My mind travels not to exotic places, but to my home.

What’s the newest thing I (heart) about PDX? The Community Cycling Center‘s Get Lit. I’m riding home from work in the autumnal evening darkness in a constant panic that my rear light is dead. The hook on the back broke so I can’t fit it onto the bracket. So it’s zip-tied to the bike. So when the batteries die (they’re already dying), I can either never take the light off to replace them, or I can’t get the light back on in safely, snugly back into the zip ties. But what do I find but a mass of well-lit Community Cycling Center volunteers handing out AND installing Planet Bike rear and front lights. For free. For us. For me. For the young woman who pulled up right after me in a lather of joy and appreciation because her rear light was recently stolen, and unlike me with my dying batteries, she had none. She had none. Now she has some. And they are bright. And safe. So safe.

I (heart) PDX and the way that grassroots organizations will step up to encourage and support biking. We don’t have all the kinks worked out for truly sharing the road (such as building up more and safer infrastructure for cycling and public transit instead of a 12-lane behemoth that practically dares drivers to try to fill it up each day), we are moving in the right direction. By PSU we have bike tracks. We have bike boxes around town. And thanks to the ever-wonderful CCC, we have even more folks out there who can see and be seen on the road. We’re moving in the right direction, and the way is lit.