What I’m up against

The only car I’ve known so far threatened to send me over a fiscal cliff.

But I had to say no.

I decided last month to stop putting money into it pending a search for a new car and paying off my existing car loan. Neither of these two things will happen overnight. They require a thorough plan that will be both challenging and rewarding.

I’ve been spending the last month and now, the foreseeable future being relatively car-free again. This does not make me any less of a man nor does it make me less of an adult. Moreover, it doesn’t make me someone who needs to be saved. I will get a car again, but this time it will be a well thought out purchase and not from a con artist bastard.

It really inspired me once again, to fight for better communities and resist the inferiority complex that plagues Londoners where they often say, we don’t need better things. But as I remember, when I get out of the car and step on the bike, I become the most hated person in this city. Which is fine, if that were to be my job description, but I am only advocating for a more affordable, functional, and sustainable way of life, and wanting to live by example. And some of the townies don’t like that.

Progressives think I’m a gentrifyer. Conservatives think that advocating for better is a waste of money. Centrists run interference for either of these two with the some of the same bad faith arguments.

I’ve had death threats from drivers screamed at me from the comfort of their car. I’ve had drivers follow me, and not in a drive behind me kind of way. Very divorced men in large trucks or sports cars angrily pass me on neighborhood streets.

Those are some things I’m up against.

What am I really up against?

Nearly three years ago, on a bike trip to a local business on my side of the city, the business owner, who I had known for quite some time, launched into a rant against the protected bike lanes near their business, stating that they were unnecessary, they would make problems for buses, and block their family business.

I took those bike lanes to safely arrive to buy something from this business.

And they continued to rant away.

That’s what I’m up against. Nothing is guaranteed. I continue to fight.