Act of Rebellion: Peddling

I’ve been riding my bike for school/work since I was in first grade. My dad also grew up in the South Bay and rode a bike for transportation until he graduated from law school. I’ve always seen bikes as a reasonable form of transportation and now that I live in Philadelphia, I get to utilize the small, semi flat city to live my best anti car life! Despite the increase in bike infrastructure, Philadelphia is still a city that prioritizes cars and therefore is unsafe for most cyclists. 

I’m pretty lucky that in the 5.5 years that I’ve lived here I’ve never been hit by a car. I ride with a helmet, I have lights, I signal, and I go out of my way to ride in bike lanes that don’t protect me. Yet when a car tailgates me while honking on a low traffic street around the corner from an awesome park/bike trail I am reminded that being on a bike is an act of rebellion. 

During lock down I started using Nextdoor (don’t read me) to connect with my neighbors. I found a lot of great resources including someone who donated my old clothes to a family in need, someone who bought a bed frame from me, and a bunch of people who wanted to make sure I had a plan to vote. But yesterday I decided to talk about my brush with death and found the ugly side of my neighborhood. 

To step back, I live in Fitler Square Philadelphia. We have walk score of 96, transit score of 99 and bicycle score of 97. If you want to get rid of your car, this is the neighborhood for you. Across the street from me is the Schuylkill River Trail, an awesome 120 mile multi-use trail. Just South of me is a walking street and all around are protected and partially protected bike lanes. Yet the number one argument on my now 130+ comment thread on Nextdoor is that I should have gotten out of the way or “stayed on a bike lane” (which I was going to at the time). One person went so far as to just say “you deserved that.”

Le sigh...

I’m sad, angry, and yet I have to get to work. So back to the bike!

Why did you leave LA?

My least favorite question that I’ve ever been asked is: “Why did you leave LA?”

But as I count the years away from my childhood home I find new meaning in my jump across the country. 

Because this is a blog let me start at the beginning. 

I grew up in the South Bay (Redondo beach and then Palos Verdes Estates) and lived there until I left for college at 18. I never envisioned myself being an adult at all so it’s hard for me to say I “always knew I would leave” because in reality I just knew I wanted to live in a lot of different places. For awhile, I would tell people that I wanted to live in every major city in the US. So far I’ve stopped at 3 and continuing down that dream would be exhausting (I’m not interested in moving all of my possessions any time soon). Overall, I would say that growing up in the South Bay was pretty fun. For those who aren’t familiar, the South Bay is part of Los Angeles County made up of the southern most beach cities including the Palos Verdes Peninsula. My friends and I would ride our bikes all over our town or on the Strand (basically the SoCal version of a boardwalk but concrete), we would go on long walks on the cliffs, and throw birthday parties in local parks. We had incredibly maintained public open spaces. 

Because of our access to the outdoors I did cross country, was a girl scout, and played lots of sports regardless of if I was good at them. But having outdoor access was a huge privilege. And I don’t think I really understood that. 

In 7th grade I joined the National Charity League (NCL), which my father describes as a college resume item so students could meet their volunteering requirements but not a real “charity”. Despite that, I was very involved and spent hundreds of hours each year volunteering with different groups across the area. One event I did multiple summers was the Peace 4 Kids Beach day. We would partner with foster kids and give them a day at the beach. For most of them this was their first time coming to the beach or their one day a year to enjoy the sun and the water. I loved it because it was so fun to hang out with these kids, get to know them, see them grow up year after year, and give them a positive experience. However, I was always left with the feeling that I could do more to help them. (Peace 4 Kids is a really awesome nonprofit that recently celebrated their 20th anniversary, you should check them out)

Granted, there are so many different policy solutions to help kids going through the foster system in LA but one that really struck me was creating access to safe, well maintained, out door space. Why did these kids, who also lived in LA county, only get to go to the beach once a year? I understand that LA is a ginormous county and takes multiple hours (in traffic) to move around but also we could do a better job to make a beach trip or a park outing not just something rich and mostly white kids who live near the coast get to appreciate. 

So I’m going to use this space to talk about what accessible transportation actually looks like, why I’m tired of people saying LA is better than any other city, and why it’s time to stop glorifying cars and vilifying public transit. 

Accessibility is a wealth issue, race issue, environmental issue, and a human rights issue and it should be talked about every day.