Practical Advice for Transportation Cycling

Sometimes, all that matters is getting from Point A to Point B as cheaply, safely and efficiently as possible. You don't need a fast bike, you don't need a pretty bike, and most of all you don't need an expensive bike, you just need one that works.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Opinionated Blogger Friday: Things That Make You Go, "#@*%!"

Bicycle commuting is wonderful, and on a beautiful spring day, when everyone in a car is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you know you've made the best decision ever. But every now and then, biking opens you up to some very particular indignities, like:

  • The Right Hook (when a car passes you and makes a right turn directly in front of/into you, when waiting for about .75 seconds for you to pass the intersection would have been safer)
  • Getting a faceful of hot cigarette ash from a driver who can't be bothered to use their ashtray
  • Traffic lights that won't change for something as small as a bicycle. The worst are the ones where the "Don't Walk" sign starts to flash on the street you want to cross, and you think the light will change in a couple seconds, but then the pedestrian light goes back to "Walk." 
  • Drivers who scream obscenities at you as they pass for no good reason
  • Drivers who throw stuff at you
  • Cyclists who ride on the sidewalk and nearly hit you at cross streets
  • Cyclists who ride the wrong way on busy roads
  • Cyclists who blow through red lights/stop signs and almost hit you
  • Bike Ninjas
  • Your main route being resurfaced in chip-seal
  • Dogs on those retractable leashes
  • F***ing Canada Geese
  • Drivers who will run you off the road so they can stop you and ask you for directions
  • NJ Transit's ever-changing bike-on-train policies
  • Helmet hair
  • Wearing out the seats of your pants
  • Muddy streaks up the back of your pants and shirt front hitting a wet spot with no fenders
  • Hail
  • People who refer to you as a "Lance Armstrong Wannabee"
  • Racing snobs
  • Having to change a flat in your nice clothes
  • Hills

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