The thirtieth:
Time to remember
Article published in December 2014
In the legendary movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” we see Paul Newman having lots of fun riding a bicycle. That scene became famous, especially because of its background music, “Raindrops keep falling on my head”, an international hit by the ending of 1969 and 1970.
In the movie, the bicycle was a novelty. This is true also for children, who see it as an additional toy for them to play. They learn how to control it usually after some tumbles, and ride it with no definite course.
This initiation takes place most frequently in the backyard or in a park. What matters at this moment is prowling around, go back and forth, riding in curves. Only eventually they will be able to hold firmly the handlebar, ride in a straight line and follow some traffic discipline.
In another famous movie, “City of Angels” (1998), the protagonist Meg Ryan daydreams to her love partner while going home by bike. The happiness expressed in her face at that moment is unique. But the ending of the story shows that she was in a public way and in that situation… it would have been better to pay attention to the traffic.
We can envision here two different attitudes: riding around (moving in an unconcerned and pleasurable way) and street riding (managing a mean of transportation with respect to traffic laws). Always remember that to ride a bike safely in the cities, what matters most is to tell riding around from street riding. It is a matter of attitude.
Natura Futura 