Riding home from Manhattan today, I steered my bike off the side of a bike path, into a patch of grass, up a little hill and around in a few circles.  It was cold out and cyclists on the bike path looked at me-- I don't know if they were disapproving or just curious, but I realize how infrequently the average bike commuter sees a seemingly adult-aged individual behaving so unpredictably.  I don't usually do things like that myself, either, but today I felt an urge to put a little bit of fun into my commute.  I hadn't ever thought about it before, but those stares made me realize the profound difference between riding a bike for fun and using a bike as a vehicle.

What I was doing on my bike is playing with it like a toy.  When someone calls the bicycle a toy, a lot of people take offense because for the purpose of traffic safety, the bicycle should be treated by automobile drivers (and the law) as a vehicle.  In the streets of Amsterdam, cyclists have about the same amount of roadway space as motorists and cyclists obey rules of traffic very similar to the rules that automobile drivers follow.  It works pretty efficiently.

The Dutch regulatory approach to bike traffic is good for the environment, good for reducing road accidents, and good for the residents of a given city or town.  It isn't great for unstructured, all-out fun though.  Sometimes, it's fun to treat a bike somewhat like a toy-- as long as it's safe, I suppose.

"Nice baby."

The styrofoam-clad cyclist nodded to a doll poking out of my hot pink princess backpack, as we both stopped for a red light on Halsted.

"Thanks," I said.

I dressed up as a "girl" for Halloween—you might even call it drag for a tomboy like myself. Over the years, I've gathered that stereotypically gendered girls are expected to wear pink costumes and play with dolls. I didn't really embody that stereotype as a little girl, so I figured I'd rock it for this year's night of horror.

We were both riding north towards a big Halloween bicycle party, otherwise known as Critical Mass.

Critical Mass is a global movement, a semi-organized coincidence whereby cyclists all over the world gather in major metropolitan areas on the last Friday of every month for a giant bike ride. There are many reasons why people ride in Critical Mass, but three of the top reasons are that it:

1. Raises awareness about alternatives to car culture and sustainable transportation methods

2. Opposes oil consumption and automotive air pollution while promoting health and fitness

3. Celebrates the bicycle while strengthening the cycling community through fun participation

[Okay, so maybe that was more like seven reasons stuffed into three points, but shhhh...don't tell.]

Chicago boasts a huge participation rate, with hundreds of cyclists showing up for the ride each month. Drivers often complain that Critical Mass cyclists block traffic, but the cyclists rebuttal is that we are the traffic.

A car-driver once explained to me that she can't stand cyclists because "they're always getting in the way."

I gave her an incredulous look and responded, "No, I think you have that backwards. It's actually the cars that always get in the way of the cyclists."

Indeed, cars are always getting in my way. If those silly cars would just drive on the sidewalk, it would be so much easier for me to get around the city.

Or rather, that seems to be the general (ignorant) attitude that many drivers have towards bikers. Silly vehicles! Sidewalks are for pedestrians! It is both unsafe and illegal for cyclists to ride on the sidewalk, yet I've heard more than a few drivers yell at cyclists from their car windows: "You should be on the sidewalk!" Ugh...puh-leeze!

Anyway, Critical Mass has its supporters and its enemies even within the biking community. Some think that Critical Mass has become too radical and at times too confrontational. But we should also be fair and admit that car culture and the U.S. highway system has become too pervasive, too damaging, and too downright lethal. As a bike commuter, I have to confront the threat of motor vehicles on a daily basis. Drivers—if they happen to be unlucky enough to be in the path of the Critical Massers—only have to deal with the "threat" of cyclists (i.e. cyclists slowing or temporarily stopping car traffic) once per month.

Regardless, Halloween Critical Mass is really quite a spectacle. I caught this past Friday's CM exodus from Daley Plaza on film; check it out below.

Today I dropped my bike off to get some repairs made, and I was reminded why I don't go into bike shops very often.  When I told the man behind the counter what was wrong, he didn't seem to believe me.  He kept talking to his friend about people who come in with weird ideas about bikes and safety-- while I was there, I heard a man asking "I don't need to be able to touch the ground with my feet, do I?"  If you can't reach the ground from on top of your bike, you're not going to be able to get off very quickly or safely, but instead of telling his client that, the mechanic answered with sarcasm, saying "No, no of course not.  Why would you need to touch the ground?"

There are a lot of unused bicycles sitting still in American sheds and garages. I know that my parents have two or three, and that they're always looking for friends, or relatives, or friends of friends with kids that need bikes. That's great, since they shouldn't go to waste. But there are people that would benefit from a bike donation way more than our family friends. Like street children in Tangier, Morocco.

Bikesfortheworld.org is an organization based in Maryland that dedicates itself to teaming up with local community-building organizations in various developing countries. What sets Bikes for the World apart from some other organizations is its emphasis on creating autonomy, either by rewarding academic achievements or setting up bike repair shops to finance the continued shipments of bikes. Their most recent partnership was forged with an organization called Darna in Tangier, Morocco. Darna, which means "our house" in Arabic, runs an education center that teaches youths about life-skills and potentially lucrative trades like carpentry, plumbing, and computer science. They specifically target young people who live in the streets and lack families to rely on for food, shelter, or running water. On their website, Darna describes street life in Morocco this way: "Homeless boys, their sweaters filthy and noses running from sniffing glue, are an all-too common sight around the port and on the streets of Tangier. Girls, who cannot move so freely, tend to be less visible on the streets, but Darna knows they are a population in dire need."

I visited Tangier last spring, and the description rang true to me. Crushing poverty and extravagant wealth can exist right next door to each other, and the resources for a homeless person in Morocco are scarce, especially for homeless women and girls. Darna writes, "On the streets, traumatized, illiterate and uneducated, some with babies in their arms, their options are limited. Besides begging and petty theft, many girls accept emploment as domestic servants, where the cycle of exploitation and abuse often begins". Bikesfortheworld hopes to use bikes and bike repair classes to give Moroccan street-dwellers a chance at independence-- an admirable goal.

The other thing that struck me about Tangier during my visit was the intense air pollution. Cars don't seem to be held to any sort of emission standards, and drivers aren't held to many traffic regulations either. It all adds up to create an atmosphere of intense smog, honking car horns, near-collisions, and deafening exhaust pipes. Cycling in Morocco would probably be a harrowing experience, but the major cities would all benefit immensely from an increase in cycling. Here's hoping that Bikesfortheworld can help create a change. Log on to their site and consider donating your old bikes-- someone could really use them.

When I look back to my early days on a bike, I remember a war.  The war was between my mother and myself, and we were fighting over whether or not I would wear a helmet.  Her sister died of a horseback riding related head injury when I was still too young to ride a bike.  By the time I was able to spin cranks myself, my mother was pretty adamant about how important it was to her that I wear a head-protector when I rode my bike.  I didn't like wearing it because most of the other kids I rode bmx with at the time did it helmetless.  I would watch videos of my favorite riders, and they often didn't wear helmets either.  A few times I even remember getting made fun of for wearing a helmet.  By the time I was 16 years old, and no longer legally required to wear a helmet in my home state of New Jersey, I was addicted to the feeling of wind in my helmet-free hair.  That was stupid.

Last week I got into a bike accident, and my helmet may have saved my life.  Sharing a road with automobiles is dangerous.  They're made out of steel, they weigh thousands of pounds, and if a driver stops paying attention for even a second, they can run into a cyclist as though he were nothing more than a speed bump.  Experts estimate that up to 88% of cycling deaths every year could be prevented if the cyclists were wearing helmets.  I got squashed by a work van last Wednesday, smashed my head into the side of it at 20 miles per hour, and walked away with a mild concussion.  I couldn't think straight (or eat regularly) for almost a week, but that was actually really minor in the world of head trauma.  If anyone was wondering where all of my awesome blog posts went for the past few days, that's where.

I have a hard time believing that there was a time when I was so into looking cool that I wouldn't wear a helmet, but it's true.  Peer pressure is a very real force, and when you're surrounded by people who you respect and they're not wearing helmets, it's easy to want to fit in.  In the last few years, I've started to see 'cool' in a different way.  'Cool' is doing what you think is right and not caring what other people tell you.  It's cool to think things through and be intelligent, and it doesn't take much thinking to realize how crucial a bike helmet is.  It's cool to stay alive, if you ask me.  So if you don't have a helmet, get one!  If you do, make sure it's been approved by CPSC, Snell, or another one of the major safety codes.  And if you get into an accident involving your head, get a new helmet.  Your old one might look fine, but absorbing the impact of one crash can make a helmet less effective at absorbing impact the next time.  Be safe out there!