Tuesday, July 20, 2010

1292 Cartage

I much admire the folk who have selected alternative methods of transportation. They’ve certainly minimized their car-bon footprint. But it’s obviously led to challenges. For them.
It’s also exposed the rest of us to the resourcefulness the car-less have had to exercise when it comes to finding ways to transport all their stuff.
Because the great thing about a car is, it carries you¾and it carries your stuff too. You get to bring along your trunk. Bicyclists and Motorcyclists don’t have the same luxury.
So they devise interesting methods of car-tage. Even though they technically don’t have a car.
My favorite is the reused kitty litter bucket. I don’t know if you have to be a cat lover to be a bicyclist, or vice versa, but I sure see a lot of bicycles with kitty litter buckets draped over their back fenders.
I suppose because they are square and hang better than round paint buckets, but it still looks funny. Like a roving kitty toilet trolling for cats that gotta go.
Motorcyclists notch it up. They often have elaborate leather saddlebags, or the even more durable and roomy fiberglass ones. Mounted to their motorcycles rear end and looking quite automotive, almost like disembodied car trunks but on either side of their back wheel.
Not long ago I saw my absolute favorite, a motorcycle towing a trailer. It had two wheels side by side like a regular trailer, just scaled smaller to be towed behind the motorcycle.
And I thought, wait a minute, the front end may look funny, and you sure as heck don’t have the protection, and you’ve got a lot more bugs on your teeth, but dude...
Now you’ve got four wheels.
Now you are a car.
America, ya gotta love it.

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