bicycles
This morning I thought I'd film a short bit of my ride to class. When the weather is good it is a nice ride.
I have been in China now for about 3 months and I finally purchased my very own bike. Although its the middle of winter and I can't ride it that often it is still nice to own a bike. Beijing is the "Kingdom of Bicycles" and I LOVE IT. Now if it'll stay that way with car ownership on the rise I don't know but I hope it will.
Yup that old-school pedal backwards style is all the rage throughout Europe.
Another late, late night at the office led into a wonderful late-night/early morning ride. I jumped on my bike at 1:15am this morning and headed north from Columbus circle (59th & Amsterdam) up to home in Hamilton heights (the 150s). The great thing about riding past 1am on a Thursday night is that the roads are clear, by New York standards, and the nights are pretty clear. The bad thing about riding past 1am on any night are toe trucks and private-garbage collectors.
Now I'm not a fearless cyclist but I do pretty well on most city streets. I'll ride fast through Times-Square area, mid-town, financial district, wherever dodging cabs, pedestrians and city buses. They may be a little scary but truthfully I tend to trust the cabbies.
Toe Trucks on the other hands those drivers are freakin' crazy. They drive these 4 ton hunks of rotting steal at break-neck (or break-bike) speeds with little regard for stopping distance or side-clearance. I don't know what they make in commission but it obviously must be worth more than a human life at the speed.
The only thing scarier than a toe truck, however, is a private garbage collector truck. These 20ton hunks of rusted, rotting, putrid smelling steel drive faster than the toe trucks, stop without warning, and turn corners without signaling. The only thing that makes them remotely safe is that you can hear them bouncy up and down the roadway from about 2 miles away; which gives you about 10 seconds to move. This early warning system, however, is about soothing as hearing the sound of Godzilla in downtown Tokyo.
They are freakin' scary
Fortunately I only ran into a single private garbage collector truck and it was stopped so I was able to step up my speed and get the heck away from it as fast as possible (I'm serious, I book it when I see them). My ride was pretty relaxing considering the fact that it was 1:15am and I just got done working 14 hours at work.
The ride through the upper west side was nice and there were not very many cars to contend. Although I did ride in the far left side of the lane to avoid the pesky cab hailing pedestrians that tend to wander out into the middle of the street. I didn't feel tired until I hit the small hill in the early 100s and then my lack of sleep really hit me at 125th where I had to gain a hundred feet or so of altitude in ten or so blocks. Oh man you get a good workout on those hills when you ride a fixie.
The best and worst part of the night was the very end of the ride. Just past 145 street I was riding alongside a tour bus and a minivan cab. I didn't notice for a block or so but the cabbie was motioning to me to race him.
Now I'm a sucker so.. I did it. Starting at 146th I raced a cab to about 148th street where I pulled ahead of him, put on some more speed and pulled ahead of the tour bus too. At 150th they got stuck behind a red light and I sailed ahead. Mainly because I was going so fast that I couldn't stop. I took a left turn at 151st, jumped off my bike, headed inside and then.....
felt like I was going to puke. I might have won the race but I destroyed my body.
it was fun! :)
24 Cyclists were killed in 2005 and 14 cyclists were killed in 2006 on the streets on New York City. Although 10 less people died in 2006 it shouldn't be viewed as a mark of improvement. 2 cyclists were run down on a car free bike path in 2006 which demonstrates that cyclists are not safe anywhere in new York City.
