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Driveway Moment: Commuting Informed

I don’t drive much, so I don’t have driveway moments. I have the opposite. I listen to so much public radio at home that it’s a wonder I ever get out of the house. I have been late to work more than once because I was standing in the kitchen finishing a story and completely lost track of time.

I’m a bike commuter and it is absolutely unsafe to listen to podcasts while riding a bike, so unlike most listeners, I actually go without my public radio fix while I commute.

There was a story this summer that caused me to have one of these kitchen moments. It was an Eleanor Beardsley story from Copenhagen about superhighways for bike commuting.

She was literally speaking into the microphone while she was biking through the city and interviewing people at the stops and it was impossible for me not be transported there. There are footrests and bars to lean on during stoplights, she said! There are air pumps every mile, she said! I think I was closing my eyes while listening. I could feel the breeze from the Oresund in my hair and against my unbelievably chic trenchcoat while I flew down the flat and protected path toward my destination.

That’s the power of radio. And even though my town doesn’t even have bike lanes, I at least rode to work with the knowledge that somewhere people were commuting in style. That is, I commuted informed.

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