Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Real Service to the Bicycling Community



Tonight on my way home on the Clive Greenbelt I came across Jane, a roadie with 3000 miles this year, off her bike and picking up broken glass off a bridge.  She gave me a warning and told me to check my tires.  I stopped and did that and then joined her in the glass removal.  Most people rode by.  I almost did.  Then I thought about it for a second.  Mary will be riding through this and both Mary and I will ride across this trail section tomorrow morning about 530 am.  Having just put new tires on her bike and on the one I was riding at the time and two more to put on my regular commuter at home tonight I had little desire for more tire changes/fixing.  I should help.

This is not the first time I have stopped and gotten off the bike to pick up glass with my bare hands.  Usually I can sweep it off the trail with my shoes.  Not this stuff.  Small and unidentifiable.  Jane said she did not know what it was from.  "Not a pop bottle."  What it was did not matter.  Getting it off the trail was all that counted.

The glass was on the bridge just east of 86th St.  A trail user had to have done this.  Too far away from the street for someone in a car to casually toss it out the window.  Intentional or not I cannot pronounce.  Removal I can do.

I really wish more people would take the time to stop and clean such objects off the trail.  That would be a real service.  Give back to the community.  I salute Jane for doing this.  A selfless act.  Then again I see her everyday on a road bike and I know the pain of fixing a flat.

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