11/18/11

Ride Home 11/18

I have a bit of blogger's block, so this might not go very far. Or maybe I'll drift off on some ridiculous tangent and end up writing at length about something entirely diffuse and with a degree of volubility (if this characteristic can be applied to writing) unseen since the last time I blogged with the same characteristic, which might or might not have been recently.
I cry when I ride my bike. Every time I ride downhill. I hope I don't look sad. On the other hand, I hope I don't look to happy, like I'm crying joyously because that might be weird. Tears on the cheek are special nuisance in the cold. I've tried wearing sunglasses, but that hardly stops it. The gift of tears. 
Bare legs! Not me, but I saw a few other people out riding in shorts. Seriously, it's cold out there. Put some pants on. 
Temporarily blocking the bike lane is one thing, but driving down it is another and it's wrong and sort of unforgivable. Here's a tip for drivers: don't drive in the bike lane, even if it's the only place to drive because you've made your left turn inadvisedly and would have blocked Connecticut Avenue had you waited in line behind the other drivers on Q. Add this to the 10,000 other reasons why bike lanes should be on the sidewalk side of parked cars. 
Tried 17th for the first time today. Super easy to Massachusetts (but it's only like 3 blocks) and it's wide enough on the other side of Mass, but it gets a little bit tight around K and totally ridiculous/impassable at Farragut Square. That's because there's no bike lane and the right travel lane turns into bus loading and the intersection at I is a complete and total cluster because drivers cannot get through the intersection (either driving straight or making the right turn) during the appropriate green light. Rather than stand in traffic, I popped my bike onto the sidewalk (scofflaw!) and rode to the intersection to wait at the light until I had the pleasure and honor to skeddadle my way through the heaps of metal piloted by inconsiderate or badly miscalculating drivers. 
There's no caution tape on the security barriers at the other side of Lafayette Park. I rode through. 
Some people ride really, really quickly on Pennsylvania in front of the White House. Yeah, it's open and stuff, but there's still a lot of other cyclists and pedestrians around, so a bit more caution might be heeded. But then again, speed and imprudence aren't equal.
Not look forward to a head- (helmet-) on collision with a ninja bicyclist. I simply don't understand the allure of riding completely lightless. Are you protecting yourself from a Luftwaffe raid or something? Geez. 
I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and I felt like I was in there for hours. Riding in the dark, combined with shoddy fluorescent lighting, really does a number of my sense of elapsed time. But I bought some cake and yams (39 cents/pound!) and made it back home without incident and it was only 6:15, so I guess I wasn't in the store for hours. Each time I park at the store I debate whether I should remove my lights from the bike or chance a chance theft. I normally leave them on. On the other hand, I lock up my helmet, but realistically, who wants to steal a helmet? And if a thief is willing to take a helmet, maybe that's a good thing? Unless of course, he or she will be using the helmet not for bicycling, but in the commission of some other crime, where mayhaps they must protect themselves, cranially speaking, from falling coconuts or whatnot. I don't know. It's been a long week. 

2 comments:

  1. Finally got back on the bike after two days taking the car to work, thanks to two popped tubes (remind you of anyone?). Saw several superbikers on the CCT dressed in dark clothes with no lights...ninja cyclists indeed. The only explanation I have is that there is a sliver of the population (drivers included) who somehow manage to set their various lights to come on according to a specific schedule, but they forget to change the time settings. I think one issue with cars though is that new cars have dash lights that are on all the time, so it gives the driver the impression that the lights are on....not sure what excuse the ninjas have, other than an attitude that lights are only for seeing, and being seen isn't important. But I just read a statistic that nearly all bicycle collisions happen between 6pm and 9pm, so it's a widespread problem.

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  2. I, too, have the leave or take the lights in the store with me? dilemma.
    I think Ninja riders are just lazy. They don't ever get to the bike store. Though that doesn't explain the phenomena of those riders who toss the free light they are given by the anti-ninja crusader into the shrubbery.

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