Bicycles

[prog]

It may seem strange, given the reasons for it, but recent events have led me to read, write, and think more about bicycling, and I've decided that it's now not entirely unlikely that I will obtain a bike sometime in the nearish future.

An increasing number of friends have taken up cycling as an urban commute alternative over the last couple of years. And I used to do this same thing, way back in Florida, biking to school and around town every day, and I always enjoyed it. When I returned to New England for college (and all that came after) I just never thought of it again, even though I wouldn't start driving for another three years. Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, I've lately become increasingly aware of all the time I spend walking, and as much as I love walking it'd be nice to be able to go a little faster when I wanted to.

I've started paying more attention to the (many!) cyclists I see every day as I walk around. I responded with skepticism when karlvonl commented earlier that most cyclists ignore traffic signals, but now the anecdotal evidence does seem to be mounting up. The majority of the cyclists I see seem to act as if they're just speedy pedestrians, looking both ways at intersections but then crossing at opportunity, no matter what color the light. I've never really noticed before, and I wonder if this is because most people expect cyclists to act thus.

For the life of me, I can't remember how I myself treated traffic signals back in high school. (I do recall that I rocked the manual turn signals something fierce, and this too is something I see many cyclists not bothering with around here.) I assume that all this stuff may be technically illegal but seldom enforced. The page on the topic at massbike.org basically takes the attutude "Aw, c'mon guys, you really should," and cites silly reasons for stopping (It gives you a chance to rest! If you blow through reds on your bike, you'll start doing it in your car!!).

Anyway, this isn't anything I'm gonna start tomorrow, but it's something interesting.

Comments

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

Some towns are more 'friendly' to biking than others. Madison is rather friendly to it due to the large number of trail, paths, and services. Plenty of businesses also have bike racks nearby. I've seen some places, however, that really aren't that friendly toward bicycles -- both via infrastructure and the other people on the road unwilling to give a cyclist some leeway (and some going out of their way to cause problems such as honking at a cyclist or throwing things out their window because "bicycles are for kids and shouldn't even be on 'our' streets")

In high school I did get stopped by a bike safety cop for running a red light on bicycle. They gave us (brother and I) warning tickets.

I stop at red lights more today out of sheer survival -- in fact, starting at GREEN LIGHTS also requires a bit of caution as well -- you'll sometimes get the motorist making a turn and not noticing a bicycle coming up from behind. Some lights, however, use weight/metal sensitive street sensors and simply won't detect a bicycle. Some times you just have to blow through those.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

Some lights, however, use weight/metal sensitive street sensors and simply won't detect a bicycle. Some times you just have to blow through those.

These are an incredible pain, but I'd recommend getting off your bike and pedestrianizing them, rather than riding through.

There's one intersection where I frequently make a left turn on one of these, and fortunately the traffic is high enough that generally a car comes along and triggers it, but it's something I find even more irritating than the lack of bike lanes and huge bike-gobbling potholes. I confess on one occasion experimenting with triggering it by riding in really tight circles over it, which worked, but is not exactly high on my list of safe riding practices.

[prog.livejournal.com]

I would occasionally get heckled and have stuff thrown at me at while cycling in Florida, mainly from members of the prominent Entitled Young Dickweed population. There was no bike-support culture there, and seeing anyone except a young child on a bike blew their minds.

That's nice to hear about Madison! It is the same here in Boston too.