I live in a relatively large city.
My university is practically a medium-sized city situated within the larger
actual city. It’s a great place to live, with great people, places, activities,
and just overall environments. We’re also super green here and that’s
fantastic. Our city has a bike rental system to encourage people to bike
instead of driving around campus. We have really nice bike lanes on most of the
streets in the area. In face, on the main street (which is one-way), bikes have
a separate lane that goes the other way. So, in that sense, bikers here have
special privileges.
The problem is that this goes to
their heads. Bikers here (as with biker in many other parts of the world, I’m
sure) have grown to believe, paradoxically, that they are simultaneously a
vehicle and a pedestrian, but only ever one when it’s convenient. For example,
bikers here hardly ever stop for stop signs unless there’s traffic. What’s
worse, the aforementioned special bike lanes (the ones that went against the
flow of traffic on the one-way street) have their own stoplights, which they
choose to ignore. That is, bikers are ignoring the traffic light that was built
just for the bike lane. Many
pedestrians find this annoying and infuriating. In fact, I once saw a biker
completely ignore one of these stop lights, not even slowing down, and she
consequently hit a pedestrian who was in the crosswalk when the sign said to
walk. (Had I not been paying attention, this cyclist would have hit me.) This
has become such a problem that the city police actually spent a day pulling
cyclists over who ran reds at one such intersection.
Another thing that cyclists do here
is frequently switch between the road and the sidewalk whenever the other is
more convenient. Now, I understand going to the sidewalk if your class is in
the building there, but please please please
dismount and walk your bike. You’re not a child anymore. You’re a grown person
who has the ability to bike on the road.
So, I guess as a general plea to all
the cyclists out there: please be intelligent about your biking. While you are
biking, you are a vehicle, not a pedestrian. Dismount if you want to act like a
pedestrian.
Anyway.
That was my rant for now.
Until
next time, I’m Michael, and this is my life.
(P.S.
No plug for this post. There hasn’t really been anything recently that I’d like
to plug. Besides, I don’t really know how I’d work a plug into this rant. Next
time, I promise.)
