Winter complaints pt. III: the Winter of our Discontent

I got a reminder of my vincibility on Tuesday, as I crashed on the bike for the 3rd time this winter. Which is good, you know, because for a bicyclist, it's useful to be aware that accidents may happen and one needs to be cautious. If you haven't crashed lately, you may assume that it only happens to other, possibly less skilled riders, and based on the false assumption of your superior riding skills, you might act irresponsibly in traffic. But not me, no, I got my lesson. For the time being.

The cycle path I rode on had really become a path. The combined bike lane and sidewalk (I really need to figure out what the correct English term for the thing is, assuming there is one) is normally about 3 metres wide on Veturitie, Helsinki. Because the natural enemy of all bicyclists, The Public Works Department, has lately reached outstanding achievements in the field of not plowing, the path in question had diminished into a 50 cm wide trampled path.

Trust me, there used to be a bike lane "with an ample cleavage" here.

To give way for a pedestrian, I hopped off the path and onto the road. Unfortunately, on the side of the road, underneath the soft snow, there was a groove in the hard packed snow, into which my front wheel promptly fell, and I found both myself and my vehicle lying flat on the road in less than a considerably short unit of time. Had there been cars passing at the moment, I would have been in a hurry to get up, lest it become messy. That particular road is heavily used by trucks and the speed limit is 60 km/h. It's a nasty place to lie down, and I, for one, have a slight resentment towards being killed.

Funnily enough, only my ego was hurt, despite my shoulder and knee making contact with hard, cold asphalt. Luckily, my ego is vertically lateral, yet compliantly stiff, or whatnot, enough that a mere minor crash can only make it slightly out of true (I'll have it fixed come spring).

Then again, the plowing situation has gotten even worse since Tuesday.

Actually, my wheels are illuminated by LEDs, powered by the smugness radiating from my ego. The smugness is powered mostly by using photographic trickery to stage situations as if I'd just used the bicycle to surpass apparently insurmountable objects, like the iceberg on the right. Amazing how little voltage LEDs require, eh?

This morning, of the length of my commuting route, approximately

• 3% had been properly plowed


• 87% had not been plowed


• 10% had been "plowed" with a toy vehicle, apparently.

I like hard exercise, such as bicycling in untouched snow, just as much as the next guy with compulsive exercise addiction, but as I'm trying to recover from a cold, I wouldn't have wanted to do it right now. It's understandable that in New York, or the UK, traffic becomes chaos (and people resort to pillaging and cannibalism) the minute some snow falls down, but it's not supposed to be like that here. At least not all winter, each winter. C'mon, we're Finns, we're supposed to have the snow-how! Yeesh!

Nevertheless, usually I enjoy commuting by bicycle even though (or possibly because) it's hard. I get positive energy out of the challenge, a kind of a "fuck you, I'm hard" attitude. I go to the shower and usually start working in a cheery mood. But sometimes, like this morning, it gets so difficult that there is a negative aspect involved as well. A kind of a "fuck it, this is ridiculous" attitude.

You might think that because I am complaining loudly and at great length about some snow on my 7.5 km commuting route, I am a soft wuss, at least when compared to the hardships endured by Eugène Christophe. However, he was getting paid for riding the bike, he was doing it for sports and fame and Henri Desgrange was making the Tour de France deliberately difficult for the amusement of spectators.

In contrast, I am riding the bike in order to get to work, where I can be a productive citizen and earn money to pay taxes. The sports & fame are just byproducts, and usually there aren't that many spectators to enjoy from my suffering.

The society should put some effort into making the bike-riding easier in the winter. They should allocate some more money for plowing. I'll gladly pay more taxes for that. I'll vote for the first candidate who promises to plow better (disclaimer: except Bogomoloff). Local politicians, are you listening?

Meh. Didn't think so. I'll just vote for Soininvaara.