Utilizing The Bicycle Brain

    The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study by Dr. Bastiaan R. Bloem from the Netherlands.  Dr. Bloem  discovered that people with  Parkinson's disease so severe it affected their ability to walk, what he called "freezing of gait," are surprisingly able to ride a bicycle.  Explaining his findings to the New York Times he said "bicycling uses a different part of the brain than walking." 
    This may explain why your walking brain would tell you never to walk through the tunnel where the southbound Lodge freeway turns into Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit.  Your bicycle brain, on the other hand, says go.

     

    The ride begins with an ample shoulder on which to travel; this soon starts to taper to an uncomfortable width.  By the time you find yourself with no shoulder, however, you're out of the tunnel and awkwardly placed in the middle lanes of Jefferson Avenue.   Your bicycle brain must now lead you to safety, and it will, because you can trust your bicycle brain.