Scent in the city

One of the unique aspects of cycling in the city is experiencing your surroundingsnot just through sight and sound but also smell writes, Philip Gomes.

I got this idea from the terrific Urban Velo blog, where they ask, " what do you smell while riding in the city?"

There are some great responses in comments already, from coffee to food to 'car farts'.

Urban riding and commuting is filled with a host of unique pleasures and of course pain, but for the purpose of discussion we'll stick with pleasure.

Each city has it's own unique fragrance, a miasma of all of humanities excretions. And to ride is to experience the gamult nasally.

An early morning commute brings out the smell of a new day to me, the previous day's accumulation replaced with an almost 'new car' smell.

Of course the dominant source of what we smell does come from motoring, so it's always a pleasure to ride without all that first thing.

And riding through the club districts in the city is itself an olfactory experience - but we won't go there.

In Sydney there is the smell of gas powered buses and Taxis mixed with food and coffee.

And if you happen to be sitting on a fellow commuter who has neglected the washing and pulled on some days old commuting gear, you get that fresh hobo scent peculiar to all cyclists who are hygenically challenged.

But it is the food that does it for me, particularily on the commute home after a days work.

That end of day hunger mixed with some solid exercise leaves me salivating at the mere scent of a passing fast food joint.

How about you?