Pedal Power The Ojai Valley on Two Wheels BY G.LEV BAUMEL
If I got a dollar for every time someone said I was cheating when I ride my electronic bicycle, commonly known as an e-bike, I could buy the Tour de France. Once upon a time, I too believed e-bikes meant cheating. My opinion shifted when I started looking for how I might fit exercise into my busy days. I didn’t want to arrive at work all sweaty, but I still needed to move my body. Someone recommended I try an e-bike. I rented one for a day and that was all it took. These days, I ride my e-bike as often as I can. I have commuted to jobs across town and all the way to Ventura. Date nights on my e-bike are my favorite. More recently, my e-bike has allowed me to cover longer distances in the short spurts I have to get outside during this period of social distancing. Put simply: my e-bike has changed my life. I am aware that talking about bicycles during a global pandemic may seem strange. However, while we spend our days sequestered inside our homes, and weeks and months away from loved ones and life as we knew it, questions about the future are constantly present: when we are, once again, free to roam the earth, how would we, as a society, like to re-emerge? I also wonder about the normal life we speak of missing — how well was that “normal” really working? What would we like to go back to, and what do we hope may be forever changed as a result of these unprecedented times? One small silver lining of the horrendous COVID-19 virus is a substantial drop in world pollution. For one, carbon and nitrogen dioxide levels are down by as much as 40 percent, which lessens the risk of asthma, heart attacks and lung disease — all factors in being able to fight off the Coronavirus. And with traffic reduced by nearly 40 percent, CO2 levels are lower than they have been in decades. As a result, coyotes have been spotted on the Golden Gate Bridge, deer are grazing in Washington DC, and there has been a steep drop in roadside killings of wildlife. In Kenya, a photograph of Mount Kenya, suddenly visible from Nairobi, was