Why German Men Wear Capris

Although I generally like European fashion, one trend that I never understood was man-capris. When it was warmer, I saw them all over the place. When German exchange students came to the USA, the guys often rolled up their jeans to look like capris. I didn't understand. We weren't in a flood zone.

But, alas, the revelation has come to me, as I, too, want to wear man-capris (will I regret posting this online?). The logic is simple. Cold weather = long pants. Long pants + bicycle = pants getting caught on the chain and pedal. Torn/stained pants = roll up your pants next time.

Aside from the fondness for terrible fashion that bicycling in Germany brings, I love everything about it. Instead of traveling underground in a dark, expensive subway, I get to pedal around outside among the fall colors and fresh air. Instead of getting to know the few, expensive shops in U-Bahn stations, I can locate well-priced, organic grocery stores, Deutsche Bank ATMs, and fruit sellers who will haggle over the price of bananas.

When I bought my bike a few weeks ago, people told me not to. "It will get cold," they said. Biking makes me hot. "It's slow," they said. It's usually faster than using public transit, I've found. "Biking in bad weather isn't fun."

I had my first bad weather bike trip yesterday. For my hour-long ride to the biology center, I dealt with the light rain fairly easily. But on my way home, it started to pour. I zipped up my rain jacket and kept going. And I actually had a lot of fun-- dodging puddles and pedestrians. At times, the trip turned dangerous. My brakes didn't work so well in such weather and I saw a girl on a bike get knicked by a car.

I feel very safe riding my bike though. Munich provides bike paths on about 90% of it's street (just my rough estimate here!), and about 90% of those bike paths share space with pedestrians on the sidewalk, not with cars on the street. When I'm a pedestrian, I hate having to constantly watch for bikes, but as a biker, I love just watching out for people instead of 2-ton cars.

Müncheners are also very law-abiding citizens. Pedestrians don't cross the street during a red "Ampel." And bike riders never cross the special light made just for them, even if the tiny street is empty!