You develop a certain psychic geography as a bike commuter in D.C. You know places, but from the outside only. Most people here aren’t Hill staffers or journalists or tour guides—we don’t actually go into the U.S. Capitol, the White House, or the J. Edgar Hoover Building. They’re not buildings so much as backdrops, each of which includes copious security that you see and feel everyday. You ride through metal bollards and past security gates and around shacks where officers stand with big guns. You marvel at the effort and expense, even as you put up with the daily minor inconveniences it erects, all while trying to not be late for work.
For years, there was an officer who put a traffic cone in the middle of the East Capitol Street bike lane by the Supreme Court. Not next to the lane but smack in the middle of it. You could ride around the cone easily enough, so it wasn’t much of a safety hazard. It was there because he parked his car in the lane and, I guess, didn’t want anyone to bike into the back of his vehicle. It was both security theater and a tiny neg to bike commuters, a little reminder that you are in the midst of an important place for important people and you are not one of them (which is true), and that protecting those important people and places is the most important thing, followed only by protecting the protectors of those important people and places.
Read Full Article »