a blessing in disguise

I was driving down Centinela Ave. the other day, and I was amazed. It seems as if the streets of LA are filled with as many bikes as there are cars. Don't get me wrong. LA has a very long way to go in the way of alternative modes of transportation. But it seems to me that the rising prices of gas has become a blessing in disguise. In a town where people are married to their cars, where we have been long considered a "car culture," where companies like General Motors literally burned down its former railway system, where citizens vote against the light rail from connecting to its neighborhood. One after the other, there they were. Every spectrum of the socio-economic ladder rode their bikes down that street. To work. To school. To dinner. To a concert. To the beach. To their homes. Teenagers, senior citizens, entire families. I have watched my friends get amped about adding new tires to their bikes, finding a peugot frame on craigslist for $50 bucks, or shine with pride for riding 20 miles that day. So these days I am secretly excited about the exorbitant price of gas. Because it's initiating change. It's populating public transportation. It's making friends of carpooling co-workers. It's building a healthy community that wakes up early in the morning for that longer commute on their bikes. That no longer have time to sit on their couches and watch TV because they're riding home from work. That burn off the stresses of their day with a little physical activity. A community of cyclists that sleep a little better at night.