I like to ride, and if you know me, and I know you do, you would know that on any given day I am on my bike riding to the gym or just for fun. I have always loved riding my bike, since I was a kid it has been a daily thing. Now I have a schwinn road bike and it is a 14 speed freaking fast bike. Going fast is cool but passing cars with your bicycle is right down awesome!
In my days here in Nashville I haven’t had a lot of time to ride but that has changed in the last month due to the incredibly slow economic situation. Riding is like running but with the option to coast, not to mention you can drink water while you ride which is really hard to do while running. The exercise that you get on a bike is second to none, it is great for the joints and really gets the old heart a-beatin.
There is one down fall to riding my bike, there is not a lot of places to ride. When I ride to the gym I have to take some pretty busy main roads. Nashville is pretty good about having bike lanes in the street, which I appreciate, thanks Nashville! No matter how you ride you end up riding for your life when you are up against some of these crazy drivers.
When I first started riding my bike around town I rode through stop lights, on the opposite side of the road, and pretty much did whatever I wanted. This nearly got me killed so I switched to following the rules of the road… you know, like cars do. Doing this has made things a little better, I still nearly die every time I take out my bike.
Just the other day I was riding down a neighborhood street about 5 minutes from home and a truck took up the entire street to back up. No problem right? Surely, he will look both ways for kids, dogs or full grown men on bikes… wrong! He didn’t even look once and I was going about 30 MPH as I moved to the other side of the road riding now into traffic trying to slow down. This is when he decided to give the truck a little more gas and nearly knocked me right into a pile of brush. I turned around and glared at him, he just stuck his head out of the truck and yelled “sorry”. Sorry… really? You nearly killed me, I would have died in a pile of brush!
So I thought I was in the clear and I make it down the road about 2 miles. I am obeying the rules of the road as I am riding through a green light watching for turn signals. There was no turn signals so I start riding hard to get up the hill before traffic gets there when all of a sudden I look down and see this car (with no turn signal on) turning into my leg. I look at the driver like “really?… you are going to hit me”, she honked her horn at me like I was a punk kid running across the street. If my life wasn’t on the line I would have stopped right there and we would have, I would have… well let’s just say we would have had some words.
What to do about riding your bike is this, watch out for the crazies out there, avoid main streets and always wear full football pads everywhere you go. Because let’s face it, a helmet is not going to do much!
