Taboo Island
Leland and I went to Governor’s Island a few weeks ago. We’ve been enjoying the island for years (just like we felt the earthquake before you, etc.).
It’s actually getting a bit too crowded these days. Particularly the ferries. With the bicycles and all, it’s kind of not worth the trouble if you’ve already seen what there is to see. But anyway.
There’s a point to this. It is to bitch about a particular absurdity, like usual.
You can probably not really tell what’s happening in this enlargement, but if you’ve been to Governor’s before you can fill in the rest from memory. There’s a gas-burning golf cart on the left, and one of those hilarious pedal-powered rental carts (like this) on the right.
Now here’s the thing: the pedal cart has four (4) wheels. It’s funny looking, but the really crazy thing is that many people on these carts are wearing bicycle crash helmets, and everyone under 12 years-old is. Yes. Apparently some total loser decided that the state’s bicycle child helmet law applies to this very slow moving, impossible to flip vehicle.
In the photo it is being passed by the motorized golf cart, which had just buzzed past me for the second time. The motor cart not only has a much higher top speed than the pedal cart, but they can and do get turned over from time to time. And who’s on its back seat facing us? Just a mother and her 8 year-old son—with both of their craniums terrifyingly exposed to the hazards of the world! Quick, somebody raise their insurance premiums and chastise them for wanting to be “vegetable” burdens on their families.
Honestly, nobody in this picture needs a freaking crash helmet, but sitting backwards on a cart that can accelerate abruptly is a little dicey. The mom had her arm protectively around the kid, which was probably enough. And I mean, we won’t get into the fact that no one needs a gas-powered cart to get around this tiny island in the first place.
But yeah. It’s pretty stupid that the safer human powered option is subject to a higher, sillier safety standard than a friggin’ golf-cart. It makes no sense if you think about it for two seconds; we are just doing free-association for our safety rules these days. Does it has pedals? Must wear HELMUTTTTT.
And Gov Island is so over anyway. See you on Roosevelt Island, or something.
