so, the cycling... Nearly 6 months in, and it's become such a daily part of my life I can't remember why I never tried it before. Although knowing me it's not that surprising that it took a move to a city that lives by the car to get me pedaling. 1,200+ miles into it, I can probably count on one hand the number of fellow commuters I've seen (hobos on busted bikes and Tuesday-night cycling clubs don't count), but there's some sort of reassuring gratification to being the odd one out. Odd as in how 99.9% of your coworkers will view you as they ask you for the hundredth time if you cycled in today. Then again I've got a friend who reacts with horror when I tell her I'll walk to her place, which takes all of 10 minutes, just to give you an idea on the typical thought process about commuting by your own physical volition.
Safety-wise it's been fine, drivers seem to be over-cautious to the point where if they get to a crossroad before I do they often still wait to see what I'll do. I'm guessing many of them might have never seen a cyclist before, so they don't know how to react, like when you come across wildlife on a hike. I've had a couple of accidents, none serious, which according to what I've read online is par for the course. One of them was a stupid fall all on my lonesome, while in the other (just two days prior) I got hit by a car at low speed. The driver was doing a U-turn without looking, so she never saw me coming up from behind, and her lack of us of signal lights didn't help. Got off the ground after it happened (bike took most of the hit, in fact the back wheel had to be changed) and instinctively yelled "what the F*$K are you doing?!" at the driver, and immediately realized I was shouting at a car of middle-aged people, including a lady driver who must've been 65. Felt kind of bad about that on the hobbling ride home, and even more so when I found out the next day that the lady in question was a nun. I never did get the money back for my wheel since I got too busy to follow-up with her insurance company, but hopefully got some karma points out of it. Especially since she lied about having her signal lights on. Are nuns allowed to do that? The main lesson I learned from my two crashes was that it's always better to stick to routine, since both of them happened on a road I don't usually frequent. And my coworkers gained many joking opportunities out of it ("any rabbis on the road today?"), so really it's a win-win.
I still get the occasional honk, and mild close-calls, but overall it's been much safer than I thought it would be. And the benefits have been so plentiful that the drawbacks seem very minor. Now if only I could prevent those stupid River Oaks joggers from running on the road...
On the weekends I frequently see people going for strolls on their bikes, and it always seems like a very relaxed and enjoyable activity, but for me biking is purely utilitarian now. I do it every weekday (or at least 90-95% of the days by my estimate), and by Friday I feel fine just putting the bike away until Monday morning. I've mostly stopped running, which I loved to do, but in exchange I've gained a workout that literally blends into my day's routine. I wouldn't mind to see a few more fellow cyclists out there in the morning/evening traffic, but if a risk-adverse person like me takes to it so eagerly, I figure it's bound to catch on in Houston sooner rather than later.
Safety-wise it's been fine, drivers seem to be over-cautious to the point where if they get to a crossroad before I do they often still wait to see what I'll do. I'm guessing many of them might have never seen a cyclist before, so they don't know how to react, like when you come across wildlife on a hike. I've had a couple of accidents, none serious, which according to what I've read online is par for the course. One of them was a stupid fall all on my lonesome, while in the other (just two days prior) I got hit by a car at low speed. The driver was doing a U-turn without looking, so she never saw me coming up from behind, and her lack of us of signal lights didn't help. Got off the ground after it happened (bike took most of the hit, in fact the back wheel had to be changed) and instinctively yelled "what the F*$K are you doing?!" at the driver, and immediately realized I was shouting at a car of middle-aged people, including a lady driver who must've been 65. Felt kind of bad about that on the hobbling ride home, and even more so when I found out the next day that the lady in question was a nun. I never did get the money back for my wheel since I got too busy to follow-up with her insurance company, but hopefully got some karma points out of it. Especially since she lied about having her signal lights on. Are nuns allowed to do that? The main lesson I learned from my two crashes was that it's always better to stick to routine, since both of them happened on a road I don't usually frequent. And my coworkers gained many joking opportunities out of it ("any rabbis on the road today?"), so really it's a win-win.
I still get the occasional honk, and mild close-calls, but overall it's been much safer than I thought it would be. And the benefits have been so plentiful that the drawbacks seem very minor. Now if only I could prevent those stupid River Oaks joggers from running on the road...
On the weekends I frequently see people going for strolls on their bikes, and it always seems like a very relaxed and enjoyable activity, but for me biking is purely utilitarian now. I do it every weekday (or at least 90-95% of the days by my estimate), and by Friday I feel fine just putting the bike away until Monday morning. I've mostly stopped running, which I loved to do, but in exchange I've gained a workout that literally blends into my day's routine. I wouldn't mind to see a few more fellow cyclists out there in the morning/evening traffic, but if a risk-adverse person like me takes to it so eagerly, I figure it's bound to catch on in Houston sooner rather than later.
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