The Herald Sun
February 24, 2005
“Bicycle Commuters Unite” says the flier Alison Carpenter has been passing out recently. She’s trying to get the word out about Durham’s first Bicyclist Breakfast.
From 7:30AM until 9AM Friday, bicycle commuters will be stopping by Ooh La Latte Coffeehouse, 1116 Broad St., on their way to work.
Who’s invited? Anyone who loves bikes.
Carpenter, Durham’s new Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Coordinator, hopes the get-together will become a regular monthly event, something to bring “cohesion, solidarity to the downtown [bike] commuting group.”
Bikers’ breakfasts have been successful in towns like Charlotte and Boston, and are as much about diversity as about unity. That’s because people rides bikes for a lot of reasons. About the only thing they’ll all have in common tomorrow is a love of the bicycle. That and helmet-hair.
Bicycle commuters, simply by virtue of their mode of transit, are often seen as self-reliant people. Solitary figures, hunched over their handlebars, negotiating with tons of steel for a few feet’s width of pavement. It’s an image to make Ralph Waldo Emerson proud.
But it’s no fun to bear the weighty burden of autonomy all the time. Aristotle, recognizing us as social animals, characterizes the most meaningful life as one with elements of both self-reliance and friendship. Sometimes even the independent folks want a little company.
What’s on the agenda?
“Eat, drink, be merry, and talk about bikes, of course,” says Carpenter. Actually, there is no agenda. It’s not a meeting; the Bikers’ Breakfast is just an excuse to meet some of your fellow cyclists and ponder the big questions in life: aluminum or carbon fiber? (“Steel is real” someone shouts out from the back.) Fox Forx or Marzocchis? A backpack or a messenger bag? In the interest of getting to work on time, however, we may have to agree to disagree.
So stop by tomorrow morning, refuel with caffeine, conversation, and camaraderie, then head on to work knowing that you’re part of a community.