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WHEELING

Friends often say to me something like, “I can’t believe you’re afraid of driving to New York, but you bicycle everywhere.” I don’t worry as much as you’d think a worrywart might about getting hit by a car while biking (uh-oh will this jinx me?). It helps that I wear my new danger-zone-yellow helmet, ride on sidewalks, brake at driveways, brake on downhills and make eye contact before crossing in front of cars. Except sometimes, when I’m rushing, I scare myself to death by speedily pedaling across the street with only one second left on the traffic light timer and then the light turns red before I get to the other side and I swear I’ll never do it again and then I do it again.

See also some of my Life Goes Strong posts:

*Bike Riding Tips for Travel, Safety, Gear, Family Fun and More!

*Easy Meditation

*Yoga Exercises To Do At Home To Relieve Stress And Pain

*An Insiders 9 Favorite NYC Restaurants

*Free in NYC: NYC Parks and Other Fun in the Big Apple

Breastfeeding an Adopted Baby

*Are You Having Less Sex Than You Think You Should? One Women’s Story

*Hipster Dog Names Quirky Dog Photos

*Joyce Maynard Adopted Two Girls From Ethiopia Then Gave Them Up

*A Great New Way to Date

*Living Together: Men Speak Out With Advice About Sex and More

7 Responses to "WHEELING"

Blogging Life: Worried About Long, Trying Short says:

September 21, 2012 at 3:57 pm

[…] terror itself when he is in a car. I will risk my life to get to my daughter Emily. Maybe I would bike with Casey bunjeed to the basket. Would we even survive outdoors on a […]

Reply
Elizabeth says:

July 25, 2010 at 1:23 pm

I don’t think you need to worry at all about biking. If you can survive Beijing, you can survive DC, primarily because in Beijing, traffic rules, stop lights and bike lanes are mere suggestions….I learned from the best when I learned the dos and don’ts of bike riding in Beijing from you!

Reply
1. susan fishman orlins says:
  
  July 25, 2010 at 1:50 pm
  
  haha, at least I try for the safety angle–helmet, sidewalk, dedicated bike lanes etc.
  
  Most fun day of biking in Beijing: when Elizabeth (of the previous comment and author of great website http://www.chinalawandpolicy.com) and I each secured to our bicycle baskets two large flags–one Chinese, the other American for Obama’s visit. We then headed to Jianguomenwei, the 12-lane boulevard that cuts a swath across Beijing. We were aiming to reach the Great Hall of the People in advance of Obama’s meeting there with President Hu Jintao. Shortly, we arrived at an intersecting road that was blocked to cars. A gaggle of police and army guys were milling around and lights on their parked cars were flashing red and blue.
  
  I realized that Obama was probably going to pass right by here. We just kind of hung out and waited. No one shooed us away, though they wouldn’t let Chinese folks this near to the road. I think the security police didn’t quite know what to make of us and our bikes and flags. When the black limos started coming, the two of us jumped up and down and waved our 4 flags, and as the shiny black car with the Presidential seal rolled passed, the silouhette of Obama waved back to our two lone flag-waving figures.
  
  Being from Washington, I think about the various times I’ve biked down Massachusetts Avenue when Obama’s motorcade has gone screaming past. Ho hum. Being in Beijing was different, with us the only ones cheering along the “parade” route halfway around the globe. As we then wheeled along with our newspaper-sized flags flapping from our bike baskets, we ourselves looked like a motorcade on bikes. Whenever we stopped, people talked to us and gave us thumbs up; some thought we were with the embassy.
  
  Reply
Anita Bernstein says:

July 24, 2010 at 12:57 am

That truck driver was pulling your leg. The only faint kernel of fact in what he said is that killing can be cheaper than wounding, as far as liability goes. So yeah, an insurance company would probably raise insurance rates more than it would after a fatality if an accident brought a costly surviving plaintiff into court. But unless a truck driver has vast experience killing passengers in the cars he hits, he wouldn’t know what to do at the wheel that would leave the occupants of the car reliably dead instead of brain-dead and paralyzed.

There, I’m sure I’ve eased your anxiety about highway driving.

Reply
1. susan fishman orlins says:
  
  July 24, 2010 at 10:15 am
  
  Haha hardly does this ease my fears. I felt sure the truck driver was telling the truth and yes for the the liability reason. Funny how people change. When I was in my twenties, I drove cross country by myself in an 8-year-old VW. Not that it wasn’t scary. The car was in such bad shape that it took arm strength to keep it on the road as I wound up and down the Rockies.
  
  Reply
Connie Burak says:

July 23, 2010 at 8:25 pm

Being afraid of driving in New York only shows intelligence. Cars are absurd there. I’ve lived in the suburban outskirts of NYC for almost 50 years and have driven into Manhattan maybe twice in all that time.
Why do that when you can ride the train, read, drink and watch the landscape move from suburban to urban? Or the reverse
Now a bit farther away in Connecticut, I still prefer the bus. One can read or daydream in air-conditioned comfort. It even has a bathroom.
Good for you for pushing those pedals in DC and wearing your helmet if you’re going to run the lights.
You can enjoy the Big Apple and have nought to worry about if you take the train or plane.The crazy driving will only drive a Worrywart such as yourself–well–crazy.

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1. susan fishman orlins says:
  
  July 23, 2010 at 10:58 pm
  
  Actually I like driving in the city, love the challenge of trying to beat out taxi drivers on crowded avenues…it’s the likes of high speed turnpikes that terrify me, riding alongside speeding trucks whose drivers are playing video games. I once met a truck driver at a roadside stop who told me that part of his training on a previous job was: if you think you are going to hit a car, try to kill the occupants. I think he said it benefitted their insurance premiums. Can you imagine?
  
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