Us versus Them: Episode One, The Battle of the Pod

What do you get when you stick a Finn, a Nederlander, and an American without cars in an exercise science office? Apparently, too many bikes.

There's a bit of a feud in the 3rd floor of building 408. It isn't quite Hatfield-McCoy style, as we are academics and therefore mostly passive-aggressive.

Australia seems to have  love hate relationship with cyclists that puts them somewhere between the "I'll-run-you-off-the-road-in-my-SUV-if-you're-not-a-car" attitude of the United States and the cycle friendly European countries. It's an "us" vs "them" mentality: cyclists vs non-cyclists.

But compared to Columbia's Alpine Road or Bluff Road, to me, Perth is a cycling haven. Yet, I've still heard a few stories of rage against or from cyclists. Like, the woman at school who's husband was hit by a driver in the city, and left on the sidewalk bruised and with a mangled bike. The missing plastic on my handle bar from the previous owners' tumble. Just the other day in the elevator, an old man was regaling me with a story he heard on the radio about  a driver who always hated cyclists, until he tried cycling to work one day himself and realized how scary and dangerous it could be as one of "us". (Don't worry Mom, it's not as bad as it sounds).

And just like America, cycling commuters are in the minority in Perth. Afterall, Australia is BIG country, relatively spread out, so it's not easy to get places. But the percentage of pedaling commuters is larger than the US, and even larger in an exercise science department. And just like some public health campaigns in the US to increase cycling, Curtin University has them to get more of "us". Granted they're on the cycle path so the people who see them are already cycling, but they make me smile when I roll over them.

I've gotten by the past year keeping my bike in my office, in a little nook by my desk. No complaints, no problems. Just like everyone else who rides to work. Then we got an email from "them", targeting our office, that we couldn't keep our bikes in our office. (Not to mention they were targeting our office because our desks are "bigger" and we need to fit more people in, which isn't true, but I digress...) After a little bit of huffing and puffing and thoughts of "Fine, you don't want my bike? I'm staying home!", the "us" had to band together had to find another place to store our bikes.

But luckily, the bike love part of Curtin University has led to these bike pods that you can easily get sercurity card access to.

And this pod happens to be right behind our building.

I have yet to see it even close to full, and there are plenty of options to hang, lift or lean your bike. Why you would prefer the different options, I have no idea. I'm a lift it up horizontal kinda girl myself. There are lockers and showers (though we haven't figured out how to get the showers to work so just use the ones in our office).

And there's even a bike repair station, that I sure could have used last month when I ran over something no good with my brand new gator skin tires.

Plus you get to check out everyone's bikes. There's the hipster fixie (belonging to the Nederlander), the neon orange vest left on the old mountain bike, and the brand new Specialized road bike that makes me jealous. And in a way, the pod brings all us cyclists together to face "them", the "bike hating" enemy.

And yes, I am still a little perturbed by the attack against "us" and alienation of my poor bicycle. But I'm tough, I'm sure I won't hold a grudge against "them" for too long... or at least until next time.