Cool Idea for a living city

Posted: October 31st, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on Cool Idea for a living city

Yesterday I wrote about how I’ve recently started venturing into biking about town, and of course I did plenty of reading before I jumped in the saddle. One of concerns I’ve heard people repeat a lot is the need for bike lanes, especially ones in relevant areas. I know that in my neighborhood we have a bike lane, but it goes for about 2 miles through a residential area, not really near the local businesses I like to frequent, unless I want to take the back way.

But what if we minted our own bike lanes? What if we showed where we wanted them to be?

I’m reminded of an allegory I heard when I was younger, attending a village planning meeting of some sort. A city planner and a developer were arguing over how to properly align the sidewalks near a development they were going to revitalize, and after a long time bickering, the moderator of the meeting took both parties outside, and pointed to the footpath that had been worn into the grass by pedestrians who could not wait for a sidewalk to be planned, and said “put it there, that’s where people are already going”.

Of course, bikes don’t usually leave a path through the grass to show we’ve been there, but now I’ve stumbled across an item that could probably fill the same role, the Contrail.

“Contrail, a receptacle filled with colorful chalking fluid that attaches to a bicycle’s frame and leaves a bright line in the rider’s wake. ‘It turns your bike into a paintbrush,’ says Gelardi”

Imagine seeing the zigs and zags left by an event like critical mass, or just the daily up and down the block from the copious cyclists helping to improve our air and daring to live car-free. I think it’d be great to watch the paths come back to life after one of our trademark storms washes the streets clean. Let me leave my mark and just maybe someone will take notice.

Contrail by Ulicu LLC from Teresa Herrmann on Vimeo.


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