There are so many things I LOVE about biking to work and biking in general.
What are they, you ask? Well, funny you should, I happen to have some illustrated answers for you:
LIKES:
1. I feel strong!
2. I am doing something good for my body!
(I do karate in a white body suit after I've celebrated Holi, apparently).
3. It's SO super fun! Seriously, it's kinda magical...
4. It's speedy! I make as good time as driving and better than a bus.
5. It's a great way to see the city. I ride past all these great murals everyday and you get a peek at people going about their daily lives the best on a bike.
...plus you can cover more ground than on foot.
5. It's like free money! I WIN a bus token every time I ride somewhere.
BUT, let's face it, there are certain...challenges...when biking in Philly:
1. Fair weather bike-lane friends. Anyone who's biked on Washington Ave. knows what I'm talking about.
You know, it's like middle school where you have a great friend (we shall call her "Bike Lane") and you and BL are hanging out and having fun.
Then a popular kid starts to be nice to BL (we'll call this popular kid, "Car Lane") and suddenly BL trades you in for CL. Then they start acting like Car Lane, and next thing you know, there's no more you and Bike Lane.
2. Drivers who don't signal and / or driver who are on their phone and are distracted (not pictured: people who open their doors into the street without looking to see if there's a biker coming):
3. People who yell at bikers to bike on the sidewalk. It's a sideWALK people, not a side-ride. You are supposed to bike on the street. That's why the bikelanes are painted on the STREET.
4. I also really dislike the commute home during rush hour because some chemical reaction takes place in the brains of people getting off work making them into aggressive, impatient, unreasonable, unsafe drivers.
OH, and let's talk about BIKE LANES for a moment, shall we?
5. People parked in the bike lane - cars, delivery trucks, moving trucks, construction workers who don't want to get their car dusty by parking on site, buses, big rigs, etc. etc.
a. It's really freakin' dangerous for bikers, people.
b. I do not understand why the city does not ticket them. It would make money for the city and discourage them parking there. Don't our schools have a 60 million deficit. Ticket these mo-fos at $100 a pop.
c. Sometimes I fantasize that I could make a sticker belt (they'd pop up like tissues do with a small area not sticky for you to grab onto) that you could slap on cars that are parked in the bike lane as you drove past.
6. Bike lanes that are Car-Part Graveyards. Anyone who's ridden on Columbus Blvd. knows I speak (write) the truth. Aside from the broken glass you normally find throughout the city in bike lanes, Columbus Blvd. makes you wonder how the cars kept driving after losing some of these parts.
7. Grates that have an abyss surrounding them. How are they still held up? I dunno. There are some places that these crevices take up the entire bike lane (Columbus Blvd., I'm looking at you... again), making you have to swing into traffic which may or may not be going 60 miles an hour.
8. And, you know, sometimes I wish I wasn't sweaty afterwards (can't wait until that gym with shower is finished in the building I work in)...
BUT, even so, the positives of riding a bike outweigh the negatives.
Plus, this week when I passed a hobo who was walking...er...stumbling around without his pants all the way up and I did indeed see his hobo junk, I was glad I was biking and not walking.
