The New York Times had a regular cycling column called “ Spokes”-their first since the “ Gossip of the Cyclers,” which used to run back in the 19th century during the original bike boom. Everywhere you went, hipsters were inexpertly piloting brakeless fixies. Nevertheless, those were heady days indeed, and cycling was very much in the zeitgeist. By 2009, the city had built 200 miles of bike lanes, though barely five miles of that was physically separated from car traffic. So, she started installing plazas and bicycle lanes, including the city’s very first “protected” bike lane (meaning bicyclists were ostensibly sheltered from motor vehicle traffic), which opened on 9th Avenue in Manhattan in 2007. Sadik-Khan had an idea that was considered very radical in America at the time: people should be able to ride bikes and walk in a city without getting run over by motor vehicles. To that end, Bloomberg appointed this woman named Janette Sadik-Khan as commissioner of the Department of Transportation. Bloomberg’s plan was to gussy up the city, presumably so it would be tolerable to him while he wasn’t at his home in Bermuda. When I stopped commuting in 2009, the mayor of New York City was this rich guy, Mike Bloomberg. It felt like I was returning to a new metropolis, and one that I was seeing with new (or, more accurately, old) eyes. So after a 14-year hiatus, I returned to bike commuting. But riding for pleasure, and riding through the city during the morning and evening rush to the same destination on a regular basis in order to perform services in exchange for monetary compensation, are two very different experiences. That’s not to say I had left New York City or stopped riding in the interim-I didn’t, and I didn’t. Also, I started commuting by bike again in New York City for the first time since 2009, which is even more significant. For one thing, I was coronated as king of the United Kingdom and the commonwealth realms at Westminster Abbey, which is a pretty big deal.
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