College Park Cycling

I visited friends in College Park, MD, this past weekend. It was not hard to find bicyclists nearly everywhere with so much of this community affected by its large university. One of the rather dominating features of late in College Park are towering brick monoliths designed to hold a seemingly unheeded number of students. Evidence of how jam-packed these monstrosities are consists of the bicycles arranged like sardines along the apartment exteriors. But that's not the only clue of biking culture in College Park. These masses of students have given rise to bike paths and bike friendly neighborhoods.

A friend's high aesthetic fixie.

One of those neighborhoods is inhabited by my friends who take advantage of the cluster of biking here. One of them, in addition to biking to work each day, uses a simple trailer to carry soccer balls for his coaching, while another has tapped the brain trust of College Park Cycles to create this slick fixie.


All of this is a refreshing contrast to the roads of Central PA which are comparatively empty of cyclists. 

Another friend's elegant uni-wheel trailer (perhaps a Bob Yak?).

For instance, the possibility of a bike stickered with Buddhist references would be an astounding find in PA, especially if it's next to a large building labeled, "Mathematics" or "Physics" as the one below was. Such an intelligent, if accidental, pairing of philosophy, transport and architectural purpose would be anathema to the proclaimed "intelligent" designs the current PA legislature is likely to hold. Alas, my local politicians are more likely to give gas frackers a tax-free ride in our state parks than offer to bike commuters some infrastructure that facilitates their ride.

A stranger's dharma cycle.