NYC and Bicycles - and the what happened next.

11-14-2004, 06:09 AM

I went to Lincoln Center last night. For the first time I noticed all
the people on bikes riding through the traffic. They were riding with
the traffic...right in the middle of the traffic. Heavy, heavy
traffic filled with taxi's, limos, big buses, etc. I could not believe
it. I just could not believe it. Plus it was cold last night. And the
traffic was extremely heavy. The city seemed to be particulary jumping
last night with us out of towners. Ya know, I go into the city alot to
see shows on Broadway or to Lincoln Center or the Garden and I spend
weekends in Manhattan and YET... I never noticed these humans who bike
their way through the maze of congestion and confusion we call NYC
traffic. Only last night, and because of this newsgroup did I notice
the cyclists. I really could not believe how they were riding through
that horrendous traffic. Taxi's were everywhere as it was a Saturday
night and close to the time everything starts happening in the city.
In all the years I have been going into the city on Saturday night,
NOT ONCE, Not even ONCE.. did I notice that there are people on bikes
actually riding through all that mess. I was in awe. The traffic, the
cold, the dark, the city.....and they are on a bike. I wondered how
they could feel at all safe. I kept thinking how vulnerable they are.
I am such a wuss that A car service brings me into the city. I think I
was starting to re-think my life. I've been such a wuss all my life
that I would never dare put myself in a situation like that. I guess I
can't wear the t-shirt "NO FEAR". But the irony of the whole this
is....When I arrived home around midnight...I sat down in a chair and
heard a loud crash...right in front of my house someone driving a car
crashed into a telephone pole. Knocked down the pole, the electric
wires, the telephone wires and he was inside the car and it was
smoking. Thank God he got out alive. During the night I started
thinking about how worried I was about the cyclists in the city and I
come home to see a young man spin out of control and crash into a pole
right in my little safe suburban town. I wonder if life was telling
me something. Ya think.

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