Pushing a car!!
Amazing!
This afternoon during my commute home through rush hour, I see a long line of cars ahead of me. I hustle past them thinking, "suckers!" At the front of the line is a guy pushing his car through some serious traffic like his car just up and died. He's youngish, but he's struggling to push it up the gentle uphill. I'm a 150lb tall and skinny lightweight. I quickly lay down the bike on the sidewalk, and start helping this guy push. We're getting it going faster, but it's still in the middle of a major roadway and it's tough going. Then another biker rides up, jumps off his bike, and starts pushing as well. We have a line of cars still in back of us, including a trolleybus. We help the guy (who looks buff and tough but is really struggling) to get his car up the little hill and into a parking lot. He mumbles thanks and is seriously winded. The other biker and I have a quick laugh about the irony of 2 bikers helping a driver out, while none of the drivers would assist. It's even more ironic because I don't own a car. We ride about one more block and have to wait at a railroad crossing with a stopped train. Unfortunately, the train looked a little too heavy for us bikers to push out of the way.
i thought this was a good metaphor for how the world will end. everyone sitting silently in their car, stuck in traffic, not offering any assistance, just waiting for some bikers to push a dead car off the road.