As I was driving to a friend's house on Sunday evening I caught the beginning of a very interesting radio documentary produced by the BBC. It was part of a show called "The Changing World. " And what was it about? One of my favorite topics (as you may have noticed) - bikes. I only got to listen to a few minutes, but luckily the program is available online.
The first half of the program covers the Velib bicycle program popular in Paris. For a small fee people can rent any of the 20,600 bikes stationed around the fashionable city. I love the image of a French woman biking in high heels, her helmet perched demurely in her bike basket so as not to muss her hair.
The second half of the program takes place throughout the early morning streets of Delhi, India, following newspaper deliveries. The majority of newspapers in the Delhi are delivered precariously perched on bicycles. Many of the delivery men seem especially attached to their bikes, even going so far as to compare their value to that of a girlfriend.
As I've started to approach biking more as a sport than as a means of transportation, it is refreshing to listen the these stories about how and why people all over the world use bikes in their everyday lives.
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