While a red light typically makes people antsy and annoyed as they impatiently count down the seconds until it turns green, today a red light brought me something else– bike chat.
On my bike and headed to yoga, the light ahead turned red. As I started to hit my squeaky brakes, a guy on a scooter buzzed on past me and abruptly came to a halt at the light. Since I was on my bike, I thought it might be strange if I pulled up right next to him, so I opted to queue right behind him, like cars do.
Within seconds of stopping the scooterist turned back to me, raising his hands and shrugging his shoulders as he said, “Wanna have some bike chat?”
Bike chat, a term I have never heard before, but I assumed it meant, ‘lets talk while we wait’, and that’s exactly what we did.
I said sure and rolled on up right next to the guy at the light. He asked me where I was going and I told him yoga. His response: “What! You should come to salsa dancing at Yerba Buena with me!” He said this while swiveling his hips as if he were doing a seated form of salsa.
The light turned green, we said our goodbyes, and went on our separate paths. Maybe next time I’ll ditch yoga and say yes.
This city makes me smile every day.
Courtney Illustrates 