Elad’s blog

I always thought tandem, the two-rider bicycle, is not a very useful invention. I mean, it looks more like something you give couples (actually, I gave one for my brother and his wife as their wedding present) than something you actually use for every day rides - it has this clumsy feeling: a bit too big, too long, too heavy. I thought riding it is probably less convenient then using normal bikes.

Lately I became aware of something that makes me reconsider. I heard about a group of blind people who are practicing bike rides. They use tandems, and a front driver. This constelation allows them to enjoy bike rides in nature like seeing persons, with all the additional benefits. They go, so it seems, to some pretty advanced routes - so tandems can probably do the job, and I was just prejudiced by the looks.
Bike trips are a popular sports in Israel, with its popularity rapidaly growing in recent years. Personally, I’m not really into it (when it comes to this, I prefer hiking on foot), but I have several friends who are keen cyclists. This initiative, though, is taking it into an entirely new direction. Israel now has some 20,000 blind residents, and when it comes to it, I don’t know about many outdoor activities that seem suitable for them. Riding bicycles certainly wouldn’t have been in my list of guesses. It makes me wander what other unexpected activities the blind - and other special populations - enjoy; and what other possibilities prejudices and wrong assumptions mask me from seeing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 7:43 and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.