lydia aka DYKE TYSON

when a local bike friend is like "i just got a personal best time on my route!" i feel super torn between congratulating them on getting faster or asking if they've become even more creative in their interpretation of traffic signals and i should be worried for their health

took my bike in for someone competent to look at it and tune it up instead of my usual fixes... this thing is more than ten years old now and after a 10 mile ride today it feels the same as when I bought it new

I love this damn thing

so the anti-bike people are pretty much right I am a loser (hot tran) who will never get bitches (cool motorcycle)

so I'm a cyclist. I fucking hate cars 99% of the time. like I have to very pointedly distract myself from thinking about how much space we have given over to them in the US, or I start to get angry just like, walking around for errands. I think it's a huge misplay as a society to have structured so much of our lives predicated on individuals owning cars. "you shouldn't need to drive to get your fucking groceries" is an opinion I hold and will fight you about.

given all that, I bike through san francisco's mission district like every other week or so due to an appointment in that neighborhood. today was a really nice and sunny day after a spat of cloudy, windy weather, so there were a bunch of people out in low riders.

I love the low rider folks. these cars are a hobby to them. they're these carefully preserved vintage machines with some personal flair added, not some luxury cage designed to isolate them from the masses. hell, you usually see them cruising with the top down just enjoying the city. normal motorists only talk to me on my bike to tell me to get off the road or that I'm "ruining traffic" (real quote). the dudes in their low riders will tell me my sneakers are cool, or today they were stoked about the weather with me. I never see them stopped in a bike lane to do some shit, they're never speeding to get through intersections, they're not trying to screw over everyone else just so they can get somewhere one light cycle faster than they would otherwise, they're just fucking chilling.

when I become supreme empress of california, in addition to my 5 year gradual prop 13 repeal, absolute annihilation of zoning laws, and systematic reconstruction of the greater LA area into a place that's hospitable to humans and not just cars that have humans in them, I will also restructure every surface street in major urban centers to be pedestrian centric... with a single lane down the middle for box trucks doing deliveries and low-riders just take a slow cruise around the city.

vote for lydia to be the last vote you ever cast!