Now This is Interesting (a brief story)

Most who visit this blog know that I like bikes...a lot. I ride mainly for transportation, but also because I enjoy it. And some also know that I am not entirely car-free, but car-lite (I own one small late model pick up truck and a small fleet of bikes). Sometimes it seems silly that I still own the truck seeing I can get by without it, and given the true cost of car ownership. Today, for example, I took the truck to my mechanic for it's annual inspection...it turns out I need to have hundreds of dollars of work done prior to inspection (surprise!). Anyhow, feeling somewhat down (disgruntled even) about the continual money pit of owning a car, I took my two dogs for a walk this evening and was contemplating what it would be like--and if I truly would be able--to be entirely car-free; as I walked I thought about selling the truck. And as I walked and my dogs stopped to pee on whatever vertical thing they could find, the above woman happened to pass me. As she passed I noticed her somewhat unique bike (it's shaft driven; no chain) and asked her about it. It turns out Tanya was here in town from Vancouver to attend the Complete Streets Summit today and is helping to start up a SoBi bike share program. Excellent! She was also nice enough to agree to have her picture taken (thanks Tanya!). So...was this fate, that I'm walking around considering going car-free and I run into someone helping to do a bike share start up? Maybe, maybe not...then again maybe I'm just over-analyzing (which I tend to do). Whether I sell the truck or not it's exciting news to have a bike share coming to Buffalo.

Urban Simplicity.