// For the Rest of Us
Posted on Monday, December 26th, 2011
Do you ever ride with headphones? I definitely do; sometimes I love a soundtrack to match my surroundings. I find music to have positive properties, whether it is for calming purposes or for energizing power. But from what I have seen, I believe I ride more cautiously than many cyclists. One of my friends in San Diego often repeated the phrase “when it’s bike versus car, car always wins.” Working for a personal injury firm has also definitely contributed to my cautiousness.
Every day, I witness fellow cyclists blatantly breaking rules of the road, putting themselves and others at risk, and making the rest of us law-abiding bikers look bad. Blasting through red lights, wearing dark clothes at night with no lights or reflectors, and aggressively cutting in front of cars are just a few examples of belligerent cycling that is rampant. When I ride with friends, we definitely try to stay in single file if we are on a busy road. Just the other day as I was driving, some woman riding with her buddies was in the lane while her friends stayed to the right. Believe me, I know that we are entitled to the lane, but if there is room to let a car pass, that should always be the priority in order to avoid incident.
So what can we do? Our cities are not designed with bicycles as the priority, although some reformation is taking place nowadays. Entire city street plans would need to be shifted in order to have bikes and cars truly cooperating. Some cities are ahead of the pack. Like I mentioned last week, Portland rules for biking in the US. They initiated a plan to become more biker-friendly back in 1971. Europe, however, seems to be leading the way for bicycle oriented thoroughfares. The Dutch and the Danish have some fantastic cycling innovations. Just check out these videos.
So we have some examples to learn from. Perhaps someday soon, a great cycling advocate will rise up into a position of political power and the necessary changes shall be made! But until then, please stay aware of your surroundings and ride safe.
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