Saturday, May 19, 2007

Around Town

I live in the suburbs for the summer and I don't have regular access to a car, I could if I wanted I guess, my family has three. But I generally bike within the area where I live to go to the gym, run errands etc. Interestingly enough its kind of difficult.

There are bike lanes on the major roads which don't really need them because they are not all that busy but they start and stop. I am a pretty experienced cyclist but for someone new I would find it pretty intimidating to find the bike lane I was riding in to disappear as I came up behind a bus parked at a bus stop. Choices in this situation:
a.) wait- could be awhile since this is the first stop
b.) ride around on the sidewalk-illegal and dangerous due to marauding seniors on electric scooters that take up the entire sidewalk
c.) merge into traffic and go around the bus- also dangerous and kind of scary 50m from the busiest intersection on the peninsula in a town where 35% of citizens are over the age of 65
What to do?

A few nights ago I was riding home from the pool and a van of kids drove up behind me and screamed as they drove by....mature.


Arriving at a yoga class the other day with my bike I was dismayed to find there was not a bike rack to be seen in uptown White Rock. After wandering around for a few minutes I gave in and removed the wheels from my bike and locked the frame to a chain link fence to a few stares from people as I carried my bike wheels around with me on my errands.