You Are Only As Fast As Your Next Elevator Trip.: May 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013

Careful Fear And Dead Devotion.

welcome to bike month in honolulu, hawaii. hopefully all your bicycle rides, commutes, and lazy spring strolls will be met with the “aloha spirit” and vibrant sunshine. may the roadways be vast, hospitable, and smooth as glass. riding a bicycle during honolulu bike month ought to be nothing short of a smile-inducing experience for all.

unless of course you are cycling home and a automotorist tells you to get off the road as he “paid good money to drive on these roads.” that happened to molly jenkins as she pedaled home from cyclovia hawaii - an event dedicated to “encourage families to become more physically active and promote biking as a means of travel.”

or if you are riding in the heavily utilized cyclist roadways of hanauma bay when a automobile halts your pace of 30mph to 0mph in a heartbeat. because that happened to jose rheo sibal.

but because it is bike month hawaii, these incidents are anomalies. and the hawaii bicycling league (HBL) will continue exclaiming to the public that cycling in honolulu is great. many beautifully designed HBL fliers will be handed out encouraging cycling on this lovely island - no mention will ever be made of these oddities during bike month hawaii.

rheo almost died during bike month hawaii because nearly one hundred percent of this goddamn city’s motorist are unaware and/or unconcerned about cyclists. forget “share the road,” it ought to be readjusted too: “do not kill other humans.” motorist ignorance is homicide.

rheo will ride a bicycle again. he will continue being a great son to his parents, a good brother to his sisters, and a good boyfriend to taryn pascua. rheo will continue to pursue academics at the university of hawaii at manoa - where he is a founding member of the university’s first USAC cycling team - and he will still likely pedal his commute to school daily.

welcome to bike month in honolulu, celebrating bicycles all month long.