Ah, summer: beaches, barbecues and the occasional bursts of sunshine, three of my favourite things. However, there's one thing summer brings that I find unpleasant, and that is gang activity.
That's right, gangs. Marauding packs of scofflaws, decked out like moving billboards in an effort to advertise their gang affiliations. While they are among us all yearround, their numbers swell in the summer like a blister in the sun.
No, I'm not referring to the U.N. Gang, or even the rabbits that congregate near Paterson Park. The group of which I speak of are the dreaded cyclists.
Cyclists are a curious and diverse bunch. Some ride for exercise, some because it's trendy, others are on a mission to save the planet, apparently by way of heavy perspiration. One thing they all have in common, though, is an odd sense of entitlement when it comes to our roadways... and an unfortunate affinity for inappropriately snug clothing.
Another vital component of the cyclist uniform is the helmet, preferably in the shape of the creature's head in Alien. By the way, what's the story with cyclists who diligently wear helmets, but think nothing of running red lights?
When I was young we never wore helmets. Perhaps, it was that bare-headed sense of vulnerability that kept us from playing chicken with cars. Although, it didn't keep us from jumping our bikes off ramps taller than we were.
Cyclists must also be a coldhearted group of people. Invariably, when you see a pack of cyclists there's always one poor soul left trailing about half a mile behind, and looking like he or she is about to suffer a serious cardiac episode. I guess it's the cyclist version of setting old Eskimos adrift on an ice flow.
Hopefully, by the November municipal election, a leader with the courage and determination needed to free drivers from the scourge of the cyclist will step forward and throw his or her hat in the ring.
Speaking of desperados, and people who are a detriment to drivers, the TransLink gang is back looking for more money for a plan that was devised with no budgetary concerns, and no funding strategy.
Does it strike anyone as odd that the Evergreen Line was devised back when wine coolers were popular and yet TransLink has not even squirreled away a single penny towards its construction? No need for good financial planning when you can just confiscate the money from an already over-burdened middle class.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Cummins recently suggested TransLink and municipal mayors could come up with their $40 million contribution to the Evergreen Line by making some cuts in the $4 billion operating budgets they collectively have at their disposal each year, and was pilloried for it.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, a cyclist, even called Cummins "ignorant." What Robertson and his fellow politicians fail to realize is that true ignorance is the belief taxpayers have more fat to trim from their household budgets than the governments we fund.
