Dear Mitchell Nussbaum, I am happy to hear that your bike culture in Madison is so classless. As I said, Madison would be the ideal city for such a Copenhagen scheme for bicycle distribution. It did seem to me, though that these pages have been somewhat devoted to Madison bike awareness--funding and promotion. I am happy to hear from Mitchell Nussbaum that is not necessary. <quote: Mitchell Nussbaum, "It's socially acceptable to ride a bike in Madison, and all kinds of people do it -- old people, young people, students, office workers, bartenders, musicians, dishwashers and janitors and totally nondescript people.">
That has not been the case in less progressive towns and cities in Wisconsin. Maybe most of the bike awareness money should be directed toward them. There was a man in Ripon who rode a bike to his job at the Speed Queen plant. I remember as a small boy that this man had won the "Ripon Strong Man" contest for carrying a hundred pound flower sack the farthest. But later in modern times he was put in the hospital, pushed over by fellow workers just because he rode a bike as he described the event to me. For the past twenty years as I have ridden my own "training course" of between fourteen and sixteen miles, I have only come across two other bicycles--in the entire time. So there are two worlds of bicycles in Wisconsin. The Madison community where Mr. Nussbaum's "rusty old commuter bike" is fine and the areas I have seen where there are simply too few bikes to count. I am presuming that Mr. Nussbaum does not have his special bike and gear for weekends? Eric Westhagen _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
