Went out and bought myself a bicycle yesterday. Of course this is only a temporary–seasonal–cure for T-Rage, and, admittedly, it is a cure that engenders a host of potentially rage-inducing problems of its own. I have no illusions, much less utopian visions, about any mode of transportation in and around Boston. Each has its own dangers and drawbacks, and each is in conflict with the others. It’s a war of all against all, is what it is. I mean, jaywalking pedestrians saunter across busy streets, holding up traffic; renegade cyclists ignore road rules and traffic signals, putting themselves and others in danger; and Boston motorists–well, what can you say? They’re among the worst in the nation.

(According to CNN, “The GMAC Insurance National Driver’s Test found that nearly 20 million Americans, or about 1 in 10 drivers, would fail a state driver’s test if they had to take one today…. Drivers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states did worst. Twenty percent of test-takers failed there. The state of Rhode Island leads the nation in driver cluelessness…. Those in neighboring Massachusetts were second worst.”)

Needless to say, I didn’t dare take my maiden journey on the bike until I got a helmet.

This isn’t the first time I’ve ridden in the city, of course. I used to ride routinely from one end of Center Street to the other and along the greenway above the T tracks, when I lived in JP. But there are no dedicated bike trails in my neighborhood in Dot (surprise, surprise). JP has that greenway with actual bike trails, so you don’t have to worry about mixing with automobile or pedestrian traffic, and I’d definitely rather not if I don’t have to.

The main reason I got the bike is because it will be so much quicker and easier this summer to get to my garden in the Fenway by bike than it would be by T, where the only somewhat feasible route takes me to the other side of town where I have to transfer from the red to the orange or green line, not to mention having to walk several blocks to get to and from the T on both legs of the journey. Public transit takes me way the hell out of my way, basically, whereas I can pretty much go there directly by bike.

So there.

So, literally weeks after the first dusting of snow, the chairs, boxes, and pylons marking those precious parking spots as “saved” are still out. As I said before, what bugs me, personally, is not so much that people do it the day of a snow storn, after they’ve labored to dig out their vehicle, thus clearing a spot, but that even well after the entire street is cleared they continue to claim that spot. This shows their true motives and mentality. They just feel entitled to a spot, period. And a little snow gives them a perfect excuse to claim it in perpetuity. You know, weather really brings it out in people. You want to see someone’s true nature? Lock ‘em out of the house in a downpour. Or lock ‘em out of the car in the cold. Then you’ll really know what you’re dealing with. Anyway, given the ridiculousness of the whole “space-saver” thing so early in the season and after barely a dusting of snow, I was enormously gratified to see on my walk home from JFK that someone had gotten fed up and done something about it, even if it was a little OTT.

The picture shows what’s left of the chair someone had set out to lay eternal claim to “their” spot. Actually, there were several more parts of the “space-saver” strewn about on the lawn of the house nearby, a bit hanging from the fence, and some other bits lying about here and there, in I’d say about a twenty foot radius from ground zero.

This was about a block from my place. Folks on my street are smarter than the average, or have learned from experience not to use materials that are too easily splintered into a million pieces by irate neighbors who get home from work before they do and aren’t Darwinian enough by nature or nurture to have saved a spot for themselves. My neighbors favor plastic or metal “space savers” that can’t be blown to bits except with the aid of, say, a Howitzer.

Do I need a special license for one of those?