Fight One: Late in 2004 I got a bee in my bonnet over the habit of the personnel in the garage where I park my bike of allowing cars to park so close to the bike rack that it made accessing some of the spaces difficult. One day I had to pick my bike up and clamber over other bikes, and I thought, “You know, one could fall down and break one’s knee doing this.” I spoke to the attendants; they were not exactly receptive. Fortunately, at the time, a friend was working in the city’s bike program and sent me a copy of the laws governing bike parking in garages, one of which requires five feet of open space behind the bikes.
One day I went to speak to the attendant again and found one of the garage managers with him. I showed the manager the problem and he said perhaps a sign could be erected asking drivers to leave the bikes plenty of room. He soon left his position, but the phone number he gave me led me to a woman who was extremely friendly and helpful. A few conversations later, they simply took that car space out of service by putting a cone in it, and that’s the way things stayed for the next year. End of problem, until recently.
Now and then, I noticed that the cone would be in place in the morning, but in the afternoon, the cone would be gone, and a small car would be in that space, as far from the bikes as possible. Not a problem. Then they stopped putting the cone out, but cars were not seen in the space in the morning. I asked the attendant a couple of weeks ago to be sure to put the cone out and he was friendly enough. Since then, the cones have disappeared completely and last Thursday, when I went to retrieve my bike, there was a big van in the space. I was able to get my bike out, but mostly because the bike next to mine was already gone.
I called up the nice lady, but alas, that number now goes to a different office, the management office for the building the garage is attached to. I left a message for the building manager but did not receive a call back, which annoyed me.
Fight Two: Cycling home, I go by the
One day last week, the bike lane was of course blocked, plus there was a large truck in the car lane next to the bike lane. While I was passing the truck, some moron on a motorcycle decided it would be a clever idea to speed between me and the truck, passing on my right. I had nearly cleared the truck by then and was returning, in a gradual arc, to the lane the truck was in. The motorcycle whizzed by with about three inches to spare. If I had been cutting back into the truck’s lane abruptly rather than gradually, I would possibly be dead right now.
Fight Three: On Market St. eastbound between Ninth and Eighth streets, there are some lovely new bike lanes which are often full of parked buses, no doubt associated with the hotel there, the Ramada Plaza, at 1231 Market. About a week and a half ago, I sent the Bike Coalition an email asking for their tips on getting the hotel not to block the bike lanes. I didn’t receive a response. Then the thing happened with the motorcyclist, so I called one of the same people I’d emailed at the Bike Coalition to ask again for crafty strategies regarding bike lanes. No response. So then I was irked at the Bike Coalition, as well as at the hotel, which I guess makes it four fights. One fight does tend to attract another fight. I have been a loyal supporter of theirs for years, and send a healthy sum of money to renew my membership each year, so it kind of bugs me not to be able to get a response that would probably take five minutes or less. I’m thinking the healthy sum may shrink to the minimum next year. Then I’ll probably hear from them: “Hey, did you forget to send your hundred dollars?”
To be fair, they do incredible work, and everyone should join and support the Bike Coalition, but I do hate being ignored. It makes me feel bad. Also, I always suspect the other party of taking pleasure in ignoring me.
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