It would appear that the weather gods have decided to give us a break from the rain this month and the second day of my year without cars went off without a hitch. I managed to stay out of (and out from under) any motorized vehicle and rode to work and then home again. I gotta' tell ya, getting on to ride home after 11 hours at the store is a tough sell but the cooperative weather makes it easier and it turned out to be a great ride in spite of pushing 55 pounds of bike and gear up and down the hills to get back home. The Garmin says I climbed 1113 ft in the 12.5 mile ride. The photo at right is a shot of route 80 west bound at about 8:15 pm. Traffic is light but I am still glad I was not down there. (Plus, it's my proof that I did the ride!) Maybe the fine weather is just a coincidence or maybe it's providence giving me a chance to get used to riding all the time so that when the inevitable cold and rainy rides come, and they will come, I will be well adapted to the physical requirements of all the riding and the bad weather will not be an obstacle. To be totally honest, the thing I worry the most about is traffic. People in cars are just plain stupid, or crazy, or selfish, or all of the above and I figure the more time I spend on the road, the higher the probability that I will have unpleasant encounters with people putting on makeup, texting, eating, building ships in bottles, beating their children, and whatever else these lunatics are doing while in their cars but obviously not paying much attention to the safe operation of same. I'm not saying that every driver is bad but there are enough of them to really scare the crap out of me. That said, I am very cautious in traffic and ride as though I am invisible to everyone. When asked how it was that they came to run over a pedestrian or cyclist in the road, most people say "I never saw him". Generally they leave out the fact that the reason they "never saw him" was that they were rummaging around in the center console of their Hummer looking for that mix tape with their favorite flock of Seagulls song that they just had to hear right then and there. So my strategy is to assume that every person, in every car, will, in every situation, do the wrong thing and then plan my escapes to avoid getting tangled up in their incompetence. So far so good.
Hello, and welcome to the car-free(ish) life. Well done you for making the attempt: It'll get easier. I wonder how people drive all the time.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about cars. They are almost as bad here in Germany. The culture seems to be that carsa are right no matter what: fortunately here the law says otherwise.