Bicycles Built for Twosomes

I have a tandem bike. It's about 40 years old, very heavy, and blue (hence its name: Big Blue). One of the unsung uses of a tandem is that they can be ridden by one person -- and then used to ferry others around.

Yesterday morning I rode Big Blue to work by myself. My boss, publisher Ruth Kelly, had a lunch meeting at a downtown restaurant. She wore sensible shoes, put her notebook in a shoulder bag, and hopped aboard Big Blue for a ride to her appointment. Normally she drives, I think. (Normally she doesn't ride bikes to meetings, I know.) We made it there without crashing -- although when I steered us down the wrong street and stopped a block away from the restaurant, she hopped off and said, "That's OK, I can walk the rest of the way." She didn't ask for a ride back to the office, either.

At the end of the day, another colleague, production manager Vanlee Robblee, needed a ride home. She lives five blocks away from me and typically drives. It was sunny, 30 C out, and we headed south through downtown and across the High Level Bridge -- faster than the cars stuck in rush-hour traffic.

Along the way, Vanlee and I talked about her recent move to her new production manager role, her husband's new job, and the new magazine our company is launching in September under my editorship(http://www.unlimitedmagazine.com/). In short, we connected a little bit, which is another wonderful attribute of tandems: they foster communication between two people, because you're sitting just a few inches apart for the duration of the ride and need to know which way your biking partner is leaning to make the smoother. As a bonus, tandems also draw smiles from passersby.

Good for the environment, good for the soul -- a city full of tandem bikes would do us wonders.