Boston traffic taming

2old 2roll?

Susan McLucas doesn't think so. She's been teaching bike riding to adults for the last 20 years. Her Bicycle Riding for Beginners, offered through the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, has nearly doubled since 2006.

Emma Brown, reporting in The Boston Globe on 30 June 08, explains that demand for one-on-one lessons for adults is rising. With prices hovering above $4 per gallon the reputation of Boston's Bike Whisperer has risen accordingly. The 59-year-old chronic smiler, with a reputation for teaching even the most fearful and frustrated adults to balance on two wheels, is

an activist who has protested more than one war and who 11 years ago started the nonprofit Healthy Tomorrow to end the mutilation of women's genitals in Mali. Teaching people to cycle is a sort of activism, too: "It's part of getting rid of cars," she said, "and making bikes rule the world."

Her students, like Michael Lamb, are typically are utter newbies. Despite being nearly four decades older than the usual beginner he took the course to finally learn how to roll. His motives are modest. He wants to ride well enough to join his two young lids on the local bike paths.