'round Midnight
At 1 am the city’s streets are blessedly silent, empty, and free of cars. Drifting breezes carry scents of the ocean, of flowers at rest, of lawn sprinklers quietly at work, and hints of tomorrow’s weather. The city lights tranquilly glow, reflected in your bicycle mirror in postcard-perfect panoramas.
What little traffic there is is visible from far away. Cats and near-sighted skunks wandering across the street are the main hazards; raccoons are out too. Gulls apparently never sleep; they’re still flying around and screaming at the moon at 2 am.
You can go wherever you please, as fast or as slow as you wish. Leave your heavy lock and pannier at home, and you’ll find that a naked bike is far more responsive.
Cresting a ridge and admiring the panorama before you can take your breath away, as can racing through empty Chinatown streets at high speed and bouncing down dark alleys. You’ll garner a few strange looks from security guards and passing police (although not from the ones in the bike squad; they know what’s up), but you have every right to be there, so exercise it!
If you don’t wish to venture out by yourself, ask some friends along. You might be as surprised as I was to find out how many other people are already doing this, or find some friends who are at least intrigued enough to come along. In Vancouver proper, you can also join the Midnight Mass rides twice a month, but be prepared to ride hard and fast with that group.
You will learn what a car-free street looks and feels like. It’s fun to glide up to a red light at the corner of a six-lane street and see no traffic anywhere. Turn onto it, and see how it feels to ride down a large thoroughfare, unthreatened by moving vehicles. This is your street now; it belongs to you. Take the centre lane and enjoy it.
My ideal city would have the capacity to offer more of the world to cyclists. Riding around for an hour or two at midnight is not going to give me that of course, but it does give me a taste of how things could and should be. It gives me a taste of freedom and once I’ve fully tasted it, I do not want to go back. I want more.
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