Bridges

This is the bridge I ride over on my way to work every day. I was shocked in September when I turned the corner just before you get there and found the whole place bound up in yellow caution tape and blocked with orange signs declaring the bridge CLOSED. How was I supposed to get to work if the only bridge for several miles around was CLOSED?

On closer inspection I discovered that the sign should have read, "CLOSED TO CARS." If you're on a bike you can still sail on through, thanks to the nifty little pedestrian walkway someone tacked on to the south side of the bridge about a hundred years ago. Not only that, but with the bridge closed to cars, the most treacherous half-mile of my short commute becomes also mostly useless to (and therefore virtually unused by) cars, since almost nobody ever drives on that road except to cut across to the bridge.

Everyone in town is bitching about it, of course. The creek (more like a small river, especially in winter) runs the length of the valley, and there are only three bridges across it. Now that the middle one is closed, traffic to the other two has gotten even worse than usual. I hope it will help people understand that the geography of the valley is not negotiable—there is a mountain on each side of it, and a large creek down the middle, and these features will always determine to at least some extent (assuming they don't decide to pave over the creek, or divert it to sell to rich people) the routes that can be used to move around. You can't build lots of roads in a place like this.

You don't need lots of roads in a place like this. It is totally bikeable. You can get anywhere you want to go in the entire watershed in less than an hour, and most places are no more than ten or fifteen minutes apart. It's a beautiful place to ride, as well.

I know sometimes people "have to" drive. Like if you're taking a bunch of kids somewhere. Or driving an old person to the store. Or moving something heavy and hard to hold onto, like a couple of tons of crushed granite. But most people could probably get where they need to go an awful lot of the time on a bike instead of in a car, if they felt inclined to.

Anyway. I've really been enjoying being out in the world instead of trapped in a car. Yesterday morning I had to drive to work because I found my rear tire unexpectedly flat and didn't have time to change it before a 7am committee meeting, and I almost started crying right there in the driveway—not because the tire was flat, but because I'd been looking forward to the ride all while I was getting dressed and ready to go. This morning I fixed it and was rewarded by the sight of the NEW pedestrian bridge suddenly open for business several weeks ahead of schedule. It's beautiful! And it's not an attached lane on what is going to be the new bridge—it's completely separate and self-contained, and almost three times as wide as the old one. I like it very much.

In other news, I got a new red messenger bag over the weekend (an impulse buy on sale at REI) and every time I see it sitting there I think, "Whose bag is that?"