On Sat, Jun 08, 2002 at 11:44:24PM +0900, Keith Addison wrote:
> Glad you're still with us Paul. I'm quite a good rider (I started
> when I was 14), but I don't think it makes any difference anymore. I
> was relieved to sell my last bike, sad but definitely relieved. It
> was a 250 Kwacker twin, light, quick and supple, great for city
> riding. That was in London a few years ago. It had been a while but I
> quickly got into it again, soon found the despatch riders following
> me rather than me them. But, every day I'd set off to work or back
> again and think, Will I make it this time? Twice I was off, no
> injuries or damage, but if I'd been any slower it would have been a
> lot worse. Each time the car driver who did it to me just drove on,
> fully aware of it, didn't give a damn. First pull out, then look,
> first change lanes, then look, sheesh. It happened all the time, not
> just the twice. Something weird happens to some people's
> personalities when they get in a car. Bikes are great, I love them,
> but not in cities, not these days, the dice are loaded against you.
> Lousy way to die, or get vegetabilised.
I've taken a few spills on bikes, spent a week in the hospital, 6 weeks in a
wheelchair once from a bike crash, can't say that most of them were anyone's
fault but my own. Speed kills, eh? I did have a big Caddilac pull out in front
of me once in town, I turned to avoid it, almost made it laying the bike down
but still hit his tire with my own, got catapulted up and landed on his trunk,
then slid off as he drove away.
I didn't quit riding them because of safety, just feel that around town
especially, bicycles are a better answer (you can take a lot of shortcuts, go
down one way streets the wrong way, etc.) and mostly because I need the
exercise. But cars are a constant danger. They're not so bad up here, although
riding on snow and ice in the Winter out in the traffic can be freaky at times,
but down in Mobile I was quite unhappy to learn that I simply couldn't ride my
bike to work. Drivers down there are extremely hostile to bicyclists, many give
you the finger, blow their horns, try to see how close they can come to you,
even on non-busy streets where they have plenty of room. My brother-in-law just
made a bicycle trip from CA to FL, and said that was what happened to him all
the time in the Deep South.
--
Harmon Seaver
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
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