Back when I was in university, I tended to notice cyclists on the roads... usually because I envied them for being able to bike. Back then I didn't live close enough to my university and wasn't in any kind of shape to even think of selling my car for a bike (which would have been the only way to afford one on my starving student budget!). But even when I envied them, I would catch myself feeling disgruntled by them every so often for sometimes not-so-good reasons.

Now that I'm a cyclist, though, my awareness of other cyclists has gone up substantially. On my way to and from a doctor's appointment yesterday, I was stunned to see so many of them on the roads, sidewalks, beaches, car parks... Everywhere I looked, there was a cyclist! I knew there were people riding bikes before, but it seems like until I started doing it myself, I never noticed how many there were on a given day (43!). I'm also equally surprised and excited to see how prominent cyclists are in television ads. Were they always there? How did I never notice them before?

And that old disgruntled feeling I used to feel is Gone. It's been replaced by wonder, fascination, and giddiness.

Have any of you experienced a similar shift in perception related to cyclists once you started biking as well?