Of onions and bike paths

Retirement is like an onion. Sometimes it can make you cry. Bike paths are a bit like that, too. They can bring you to tears before they ever bring you any joy. Let me explain. 

My neighbourhood has new bike paths being built on one of the major east/west avenues. Great news, say the bike riders, whose options for safe riding are being expanded. Bah humbug, say the car drivers, whose lanes and, thus, whose options for speed and parking are being reduced. As the lanes were being constructed, I would drive down that avenue and wonder how on earth we would ever adjust to the disappearance of the left-turn lane and how we would ever put up with the concomitant increase in time to get through a major intersection. In addition, there is now a 4-way stop further into the neighbourhood that, previously, was clear sailing for cars heading west or east. Oh the travails of change on the road! 

However, as I have seen the bike lane taking increased shape on the street and I have seen bike riders enjoying their increased safety in their own protected lane, I have begun to see the advantage of this new configuration. I have not yet tried it myself as a bike rider, but that option is now safely open to me. The notion of commuting downtown on my bike via that route is significantly more appealing. And as a car driver, I have accommodated to the, let’s face it, minor inconvenience of a slower pace down that stretch of road.

It’s a change, to be sure, and a change that requires some degree of accommodation by drivers, but it also enables both drivers and riders to re-think how they make their way through the neighbourhood. Same avenue, new configurations. Alternatively, choose a new route altogether. 

My retirement from full-time work was my choice; no corporate planner imposed it on me. But the day-to-day reality of this new path is not all smooth sailing. I am having to learn new ways of navigating my way through the day and the week. The routine of five days working and two days weekending no longer exists for me. I am free to change it up as I wish, which is a radical new reality for me. 

My intentions include using my bike more. This new resolve comes, at least in part, from seeing how feasible that now is, thanks to the new bike path in my neighbourhood and others throughout the city. And I definitely intend to work my way into a comfortable and productive rhythm and routine as a retired person. It will just take a bit of time. I have not yet shed any tears over my challenging good fortune, so the tears that open this post are merely metaphorical; they represent how unsettled I feel in these early weeks of retirement. Without the pull of the boss’s agenda, I must learn how to trust and believe in my own agenda. It’s a challenge I am happy to be facing, but challenge it is. Just like those new bike lanes are a challenge for car drivers. Change forces new ways on us and we need time to map our path through them — to feel comfortable forging new routes and finding our way along them.

We are creatures of habit, but this old dog is determined to learn new tricks: freewheel my way through the day and maybe even learn how to ride my bike hands-free! 

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo of onion by vivek sharma on Unsplash