Nashville’s Rush-Hour is nothing compared to San Francisco’s. I learned to drive my first manual transmission car (Toyota Corolla) in San Fran solely because my father wanted my first hours at the controls to be tremendously difficult. I stalled embarrassingly but never quit & never hit any cars or pedestrians. I couldn’t uphill parallel park that first day, but within a week it was a mere parlor trick. Nevertheless, rush hour there is not for the meek especially with a stick. Lights do not cooperate; opportunities open suddenly & vanish mischievously; busses frustrate & cabs berate. It all makes you feel alive & insignificant.
Nashville away from the freeway has about 17 bad blocks of traffic, usually because of narrow bridges or poorly calibrated lights or ineptly thought out stop signs. When I first started riding Fixie I stayed away from all cars no matter how far it led me off course, but after about a year I sought out the traffic just to prove I was actually in control of the vectors & momenta. Bikes mixing in with cars offer a special degree of bas relief Freedom, like dolphins among netted fishing vessels. The danger/opportunity ideogram presents itself mile after exhausting mile. It’s nearly like chess but for the actual peril.
Trans-Facere – to Make A Way Across, to Do Through. Basically I’m just showing off.
Ecbatan 