Hot House Toddlers And Terrarium Tots on Bikes!

August 2, 2011

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On the way to work the other day I was thrilled to see a bicyclist actually riding in the  bike lane going the correct way.


 
See, on Lake Road in Clackamas County they have painted arrows to tell bicyclists which way they should be traveling in a bike lane. I realize this doesn’t speak well of the assumed intellect of bicyclists there, but the signs are necessary.

To wit: there’s a male bicyclist who consistently rides in the opposite direction in the bike lanes on Lake Road. It’s jarring to see a vehicle–no matter if it’s the pedaling kind–coming straight at you when you’re driving in the opposite–and correct–way.
So when I saw that bicyclist I thought “Wow! this is a nice switch! A bicyclist actually FOLLOWING THE RULES!”

And then I noticed something else: on the front of his bike was one of those kid carriers. And instantly my mind drifted in gauzy reflection to that dreamy state Representative—Mitch Greenlick.

Ever since the socialist leaning, cane toting Rep Mitch Greenlick floated the idea of banning kid trailers on bikes (happily causing the bicycling community to go all Tea Party [you crazy extremists!] on him), the bike community has been groping for other, safer ways to carry their chillins.

Of course Jonathan Maus at the Bike Portland blog still encourage kids to take over the streets and tangle with four thousand pound cars in his Kidical Mass (cute name, huh?) yearly ride but that’s another story.

Anyway, I saw this enclosed missile looking seat mounted on the front of the bicycle. The little punkin could be seen through the plastic “window” in the front of the device. And then again in gauzy reflection, my mind went straight to:  magnifying glass and ants.

Now see it was closing in on 72+ degrees at that point with a high of slightly more than 80 degrees due that day and I wondered if that little baby might be cooking in that front loaded terrarium or, as my producer called him, “a hot house toddler.”

I’m really not a hater. I think anyone who would go to all the trouble of buying a special FRONT LOADED seat for their baby probably deserves some grace in the parenting department. It’s obvious they care. But I thought I’d let them know that Mitch Greenlick might not be so understanding.

Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com