From Cradle to Pave

I’ve been watching bicyclists climb a long hill from the lower neighborhoods to the upper neighborhoods. The road is fast and narrow, and the cyclists sometimes ride the sidewalk, dodging mothers with wheeled shopping baskets, young children, and joggers. The cyclists struggle up the hill—it’s hot and humid here making the extra physical exertion all that much more difficult. In the center median are colorful, oversize, metal silhouettes of bicyclists and pedestrians trapped in effortless poses of biking and walking ease. I see a bicyclist—he is dressed in a long black coat, curls of hair hang from the sides of his face. A broad black hat is bungeed to his panniers that carry books, a computer, and the assorted objects that help him to get through his day. I am in Jerusalem, Israel. And I am witnessing the birth of a biking boom.

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