WARNING

Taking pictures whilst driving is dangerous. But can still be done. Takes a minimal amount of one-handed skill. Here's my view of sparse 9am traffic on 71 South this morning. I got this urge, so I went for it. This woman was staring at me cock-eyed in the other lane as I haphazardly lined up a shot and attempted to not get myself killed quickly. This is the result



not bad.

I went downtown for a background check today. Reasons to be explained later. But the thing I secretly love about being downtown is that its kind of impossible to get really lost. It's just a grid, just lots of circles, whether you're walking or driving it works. Also, this guy working at a parking lot gave me change so I could park at a street meter instead of pay $2.00 for 15 minutes. It was his suggestion- really. He was quite nice. But then I knew I would have to parallel, which I'm not so good at. Luckily, it was morning time, and no one but a few stray office workers and people unloading shipments were lingering on the streets, so I did a swift "pull in" to a space. God I love it when that happens.



I'm always wondering where the people are when I'm downtown. The same thing in Pittsburgh, a similar downtown situation. Which is why I support all of the efforts with tranforming Over the Rhine and re-investing and bringing more business down there. ESPECIALLY a light rail in the future, and the streetcar, AND more bike lanes. Cincinnati is so NOT bike friendly, which is unfortunate. I have some friends that flip their wig when bike riders are mentioned, basically expressing their desire to run them off the road in some state of rage. I want a bike at some point, and I plan to ride that bike outside, probably. I guess I just hope my friends don't run me off the road one day. But the fact of the matter is Cincinnati, currently, is not designed for biking. It just isn't folks. So yeah, bikes on narrow or high traffic roads is noble and awesome (go bikes!) but nonetheless a nuisance at times because we don't employ sharrows. At all.

While I'm on this topic...It occurs to me that no matter how awesome a new transit initiatve is, it's only as strong as the people behind it and supporting it. So the fact that Cincinnati folk are pretty much attached at the hip to their vehicles is a wee bit of an issue. Not to mention the fact that soooo many people in the Greater Cincinnati Area commute everyday from suburbs and periphery areas to uptown and downtown (like me). Until the streetcar and light rail plans include at least some of these areas, I don't realistically see city wide support happening.

:) Let's all get involved, and at least get informed, shall we? Check out Cincinnatians for Progress, they've been kind of lighting the pathway on the transit thing as of late, especially for the upcoming November ballot.