Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
For many retirees, retirement is a time to stay healthy and enjoy the simple things in life. For some, this may involve a round of golf, a game of ping pong, or swimming in a pool. For others, it’s the joy of riding a bicycle.
I returned tonight after spending 4 nights visiting my newly retired father in his new community near Tampa, Florida. My Dad is a Canadian ex-pat who has been living in the United States for more than ten years. The quiet streets in his gated community coupled with Florida’s climate makes this an ideal place for using bicycles to get around.
Residents in the community regularly take advantage of these ideal bicycling conditions. Hardly a moment goes by during the day where you can’t spot some grey hair blowing through the wind while pedaling about the community.
The community includes a golf course, a swimming pool, a gym, billiards tables, poker tables and tennis courts, among other features. The neighbourhood layout reminds me of the houses in the movie The Truman Show and the extensive rules and politics remind me of the Del Boca Vista scenes in the TV show Seinfeld.
Nonetheless, it seems to be very nice place to retire and spend the last decades of your life – with endless activities within walking & biking distance – and a nice warm climate to boot.
Within the community, plenty of residents use bicycles to transport themselves to the recreation centre. The bike rack outside the facility was never empty throughout the day – featuring bikes of various shapes and styles. The most common style of bicycles used by residents are the beach cruiser style and the three-wheel trikes with a rear basket.
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
On the route toward the recreation centre I spotted this sign that reads “CAUTION: DANGEROUS INTERSECTION”. I suppose the word “dangerous” is subjective, but this is pretty hilarious because the sign is displayed on a community street with a speed limit of 15mph (24km/h) and very little traffic.
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Although other residents in the community use bicycles to get around, my Dad’s garage was lacking any sort of two wheel mode of transportation. So on Saturday I set forth on a two-day mission to source out two beach cruisers to provide my Dad and Step-Mother a stylish way to transport themselves throughout their community (the recreational centre is about 1.6km from their home).
I first tried to source a couple beach cruisers at a local bike shop, but the bike shop seemed focused primarily on performance/racing bicycles and the only cruisers were Trek bikes, which didn’t quite have the wide, curved cruiser-style handlebars, nor did they come equipped with fenders or chain guards. I was also keen on purchasing bikes without any gears or hand brakes to reduce the maintenance requirements.
Next I visited Craigslist and found a pair of brand new beach cruiser bicycles that somebody had won in a contest sponsored by Bud Light Lime. The bicycles were still in boxes unassembled, and were coloured with the Bud Light Lime colour. If nothing else, I figured my Dad – a consumer of beer – would get a kick out of these beer-sponsored beach cruisers. Not to mention that the bikes were stylish and looked fun to ride.
These lime beach cruisers were being sold by a pawn shop more than 70 kilometres from my Dad’s home. I drove down to the pawn shop by myself on Sunday and arrived to discover a sign on the door that read “NOTICE: ALL GUNS MUST BE OPEN AND IN FULL VIEW BEFORE ENTERING”.
Since I wasn’t carrying a gun, this didn’t apply to me. Though truth be told, I was tempted on the car ride down to drop into one of the several gun stores I drove past – if for nothing other than satisfying my curiosity.
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
The pawn shop owner had been at an NFL football game the night before, and he had just finished church when I met him at his shop (he’s closed Sundays). He seemed like the token stereotypical American. This also reminded me of the scene in The Simpsons where Homer Simpson listens to the football game while attending a church sermon, cheering out loud every time his team scored.
Nevertheless, the pawn shop owner was a good guy and he helped me pack the two boxes into my Step Mother’s Ford Fusion. On the way home I stopped at a little store called Target and it seemed like I walked 1500 metres to get to the bicycle section to pick up a bike tire pump, a cheap cable lock and two coffee mug (beer) holders to affix to the beach cruisers for added style.
Three hours later I arrived back at my Dad’s house and spent the next couple hours assembling the cruisers. There were a couple small nuts missing, but a quick trip to the hardware store the next day solved the problem and the cruisers were thus ready to ride.
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
We took the cruisers out on Monday and discovered that these single-speed bikes were comfortable and fun to ride. There’s something exhilarating about riding with wide, curved, beach-cruiser handlebars. It made me feel as though I was riding on a beach, even though the nearest beach was more than 10 kilometres away – and probably still tainted by the BP oil spill which unleashed 210 million US gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Sadly, the joy and convenience of bicycle transportation that these retired folks have discovered in my Dad’s neighbourhood is far too uncommon outside this type of planned community. In Florida, bicycling is largely seen merely as a recreational activity or a mode of transportation for poor folks who can’t afford a car. In Tampa every road seems to be a highway and driving is the single mode of transportation that people rely on to get everywhere.
The retired folks who are staying healthy and enjoying their lives while using bicycles to transport themselves most likely spent their working years stressed out and enclosed within the confines of an automobile.
A bicycle is something we should be able to comfortably use whether we live in a retirement utopia, an urban downtown, or a suburban city. But to achieve this we need to change our perceptions and re-design how we live and move ourselves around.
James D. Schwartz is a Transportation Pragmatist and the Editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.
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