Pedestrian! Two points!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

That's not good life advice. Being predictable would be pretty damn boring. Predictable people wake up, eat their bacon and eggs, shuffle off to the daily grind, put in their eight hours, go home, eat their steak and potatoes, go to bed. Rinse. Repeat.

They also survive their daily commute.

See, while being predictable is bad life advice, it's very good commuting advice. I do my best to ride predictably because that's what gets me home in one piece. I don't (er, try not to) hop and off the sidewalk, because drivers don't expect to deal with traffic coming off the sidewalk. I ride in the middle of the lane because the gutter has all the bumps and lumps and cracks that knock a cyclist about and cause us to dodge all around in ways drivers don't see coming.

To me, it's just another step to defensive driving. The best advice I got when I got my license was from my dad—drive like everyone else is an idiot. I bike like I expect every motorist to do something illegal and stupid that will kill me, and I ride predictably to make that harder for them to do. I follow basic traffic laws. When I arrive at a red light, I pull in behind the last car, just like another vehicle. I signal obsessively—and not always the legal signals, sometimes I just fuckin point so there is no way they can misinterpret what I'm about to do.

But this doesn't just apply to bikes. This applies to everyone moving about in our crowded world. Granted, this is Texas. If you want to ride unpredictably, there are tons of fields and farm roads where it is perfectly safe to do so. But if you're going to be on the roads and paths where there are other moving people about, you need to be predictable.

So you there, guy, running on the left side of the Katy Trail? You are not being predictable. You are in the wrong space and when I spot you I worry that at any moment you are going to dash across my path to get to the correct side of the trail. And you, dumbshit punk kids who jumped out at me from behind a fence, you were not being predictable. That's why I nailed you square in the shoulder and knocked you to the ground.

You were, however, predictable enough to scamper down the side of the trail where I couldn't chase you and fully chew you out, so, kudos.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

It's spring

Just yesterday I bemoaned the cold weather, but the truth is that winter seems to have passed us by this year. I guess it snowed out its quota in 2011. The coldest it's been has been in the early mornings, before the sun has come up.

But now it's in the high 70s. In college, this was the day that The Cut was covered in previously unseen CMUers as we all remembered a world of sunlight and warmth. Now it means that I've spotted 3 other road cyclists on my ride home where in all my months of doing this, it's been only me.

Happy Spring, Dallas.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Plus/Minus

PRO
If I pedal fast, my legs get warm

CON
If I pedal fast, the wind bites into the rest of me

PRO
I don't need to wear a band to wipe away sweat anymore.

CON
Said band would be good to wipe away everything leaking from my eyes and nose, but it'd be buried under three layers of sleeves

PRO
I see some really pretty sunrises and sunsets

CON
That's because the day is so much shorter and it's dark when I leave and get home.

PRO
No one wonders if I show up at work sweaty and stinky

CON
Everyone wonders if I'll end up an icicle on the side of the road

PRO
Not worried my tires are going to melt into the pavement

CON
Worried they'll shatter instead

CON
My ears get really really cold

PRO
My ear-warmer keeps my headphones snug

PRO
This year isn't