Riding in heels

You aren't required to wear spandex when you ride a bike. There's really no law that says you must. You also aren't required to wear bike shoes. I've been seeing guys in suits riding their bicycles in Washington, and there are women in all sorts of get-ups.

This is apparently a trend in New York, too, where the women who ride are now dressing to kill.

Ha, ha. No, I'm serious. In New York, some women are "infusing what used to be an athletic, or purely practical, pursuit with eye-catching glamour and sex appeal." Consider Topaz Page-Green, which is apparently someone's real name:

She is one in an increasingly visible band of chic New Yorkers whooshing along the green-painted bike lanes that have proliferated in Manhattan, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Hudson and from TriBeCa to Harlem, clutching BlackBerrys and clad not in spandex but in fluttery skirts, capes and kitten heels.

Roadways are the new runways for these style-obsessed cyclists, their bikes no mere conveyance but a racy adjunct to their look. More than a few are infusing what used to be an athletic, or purely practical, pursuit with eye-catching glamour and sex appeal. Their style, a modish amalgam of fashion and function, is documented on blogs and emulated by like-minded sisters on wheels. Their enthusiasm is fueling an uptick in business among independent merchants.

Ms. TPG is nothing if not stylish: "She wore, of all things, a scarlet dress with a slinky 1920s feel. 'It was to the ankles,' she recalled. 'I had to hoist it up.'" This, of course, is utterly foolish; when I ride, my dress never goes below my calf. Safety is important, you know.

And speaking of safety, it's apparently no longer cool or chic or hip to wear a helmet: "other times she coasts to appointments, sans helmet, in a blazer and fresh-pressed jeans." Why? It can't be the sweat -- that's cool, chic, and hip: "'I get sweaty a little, but it doesn’t bother me,' she said. Her bike, after all, is a stylish appendage, 'a kind of rustic enhancement,' she said."

I suspect that this is all a pose. I imagine that a helmet would ruin that $200 hairstyle job. And who would whistle at a woman in a helmet?

And the article quotes one bike-blogger, who's not so keen on the whole idea.

Not everyone is thrilled. Ross Autry, a blogger in Birmingham, Ala., noted in an e-mail that multitasking bicyclists are too self-consciously hip for his taste and, what’s worse, may pose a hazard. "Fixing your makeup or sending a text message could have catastrophic results," he said. To say nothing of going without a helmet.

But do note: Mr. Autry is from ALABAMA, and not a hip neighborhood of Brooklyn. What could he possibly understand?

UPDATE: Not covered in the article: Is it even remotely possible for these women to relieve themselves while on the bike?