Yes, I know, it has been a while since my last blog. I could try to give some valid reasons why but at the end of the day...well at the end of the day I've been really tired and haven't been able to conjure up the energy to write. Oh, and I've been watching Dexter, Game of Thrones and The Borgias. How embarrassing that part of my reason for lack of writing is due to watching television. I'll try to do better.
So anyways, summer has arrived to New York City (we skipped spring this year for anyone not local). My walks from the station to the office and back again have been more enjoyable (until of course I start complaining about the brutal heat, although it is never as bad as the cold) and after a winter like this one and no spring there is nothing like the feel of the sun on my face as opposed to a bitterly cold wind. But as pleasant as the walks could be, there is a dark underbelly to them, a constant looming threat. I'm talking about bike riders in the city.
Oh, how I loathe them. I'm sure the majority of them are really nice people but once they get pedaling on these two wheelers, they become my mortal enemy.
When I first started working in the city the worst ones you had to watch out for were the bike messengers. Oh, sure, there were a few regular people who commuted by bike but they were gentle souls pedaling along the side of the road just hoping not to get creamed by a car. The messengers were like messengers of death. Since greater speed of delivery meant more pay, they zoomed through traffic like they had no cares of hitting or getting hit - racing along like they were one of the cars but going at twice the speed since the traffic lights and the traffic meant nothing to them. But I survived them...and I miss them. I mean, I'm sure they are still out there but I have other more dangerous predators to be on the lookout for these days.
In an effort to make the city safer for bikers (and I assume to increase the number of bikers to cut down on traffic, pollution, gas use - all sorts of great things I really want to support) - bike lanes have been installed all over the place. And I would imagine bikers are now safer. And there are definitely more of them. But an unintended side effect is that the pedestrians - which include me among their ranks - are now in infinitely more danger.
These bike riders adhere to no set of rules! It's like they were given their own little stretch of road on city streets and they do whatever they want in it. Any speed, any direction, they heed no lights. I can't tell you how many times I have almost been hit by a bike going some ridiculous speed the wrong way on a one way avenue and through a red light. Aren't bikes supposed to be following the same rules of the road as cars? Well they don't. Not the ones in the bike paths. It's like they think it is their own little anarchic world. And they are all getting bolder. They are starting to extend the lunacy to the streets leading onto the bike paths. They come from every which direction to get into the bike path - their zone of safety - and they just don't care how they get there or who they have to hit to make it. They know they won't get in trouble - hey, the city cared so much about them, wanted them so much, they built roads just for them.
And what about the safety of their passengers? Yes, that's right - passengers. Many of these people are carrying kids with them. The other day, I saw a guy with two kids on his bike with him. One in a carrier in front of him and one on the back of the bike . He cruised through a stop sign, almost hitting me. I didn't see him because he came out on the other side of the NYC taxicab that was patiently waiting for me to cross. Yeah, remember when they were the awful crazy drivers?
And now it has gotten worse. How you may ask? With the introduction of the Citi Bike program. Oh sure, proponents will tell you it is environmentally friendly. That it cuts down on subway, car and pedestrian traffic by providing a bike option to people who may not ride enough to warrant buying their own bike or have no place to store one or even are just visiting for a while. And they'll tell you that it has been so incredibly successful that in its first month people rode a million miles on these bikes. You know what all of that says to me? A lot of really inexperienced, incompetent bikers have been all over the roads of New York City recently. They're not just a danger on the bike paths. They are going everywhere, in every possible direction, at every possible speed. I have even seen them on the sidewalk (this is not an exaggeration to support my story). It is exactly what a normal person (not the dolts who imagined the Citi Bike program) would think would happen if you gave bikes to thousands of people who don't really ride them that often and said "go ahead, cruise around congested New York City. Any rules? No, none at all. You're a biker - people don't want you to get hurt. If things get a little hairy and a crash is imminent, aim for a pedestrian, not a car - you'll win that battle."
I've been working and walking in the city for 25 years and I suspect my odds are running out - it is only a matter of time before one of these lunatics takes me out. I think in a pinch, if things get hairy, I'm going to try to run into a car. They move a lot slower - I think I can win that battle.
MY SNARKY SELF "Let me tell you what I think of that..."
