I love TED. I’m not talking about the now-defunct airline. I’m speaking of the conference that has become, in my mind, a ministry of thought. I’ve linked to videos before. You should subscribe to the podcast. There’s great stuff to be had. I recently listened to Barry Schwartz talk about the real crisis: our loss of wisdom. And then today, I had this happen to me:
I rode my folding bike to work, and thus home as well. This evening I passed through the turnstiles with folded bike in hand, and proceeded to the back of the train, my usual spot. As I was to enter, a policeman stopped me and told me bikes weren’t allowed on the the trains until 6:30pm (an arbitrary time when rush-hour is apparently complete). I’ve never had a problem taking a folding bike on the train, and asked him if the rules had recently changed; he said no. I then consulted a PATH train employee, and he indicated while the rules do prohibit bikes, they typically let folding bikes pass. The policeman said he only stopped me because he got chewed out by his superior yesterday. So did I wait the 20 minutes? No, I left that entrance, went down the stairs and back up where I could enter from the other side of the train, and headed towards the front, away from the policeman. Two minutes later the train left the station, where another guy with a folding bike was still waiting for time to pass.
But here’s the thing: in my car, there were 10 empty seats. I was among two people standing, in a car that’s 51 feet long and more than 9 feet wide. There was space to spare – I could have ridden my bike in the car! That amount of people is normal for that train at that time, i.e. there’s always room for bikes, especially bikes that fold. So why was I stopped? Because rules have over-ridden practical, everyday wisdom.
Self portrait, with folding bike
Responses to “TED on the bike PATH”
May 14th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Yes and no. I think a private employer is a very different organization than a public agency. I do agree that it’s in the enforcement of the rules that our loss of wisdom shines bright.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Yes, too constrained by rules although it seems that in this society rules are necessary due to the lack of common sense. There has certainly been brain drain and I find myself constantly frustrated on a day to day basis for people not standing up for “common sense” and not pushing back against the rules. Glad to hear that your common sense won out against the lack of common sense of the officer.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Kinda like the scheduling rules at my workplace that you seem to defend. In my view, both sets of rules are arbitrary and unreasonably inflexible.