Things To Remember When Riding A Bike, Any Bike

[camwyn]

1. If a vehicle has a siren operating, get out of its way.
2. If a vehicle runs on rails, don't get in its way in the first place.
3. Don't tailgate the liquid oxygen truck. No, not even if you call it 'drafting' instead. You're not fooling anyone.
4. Similarly, if your neighbor on the road is red and reinforced and says EXPLOSIVES on the side, find another street to be on.
5. The laws of physics trump the right of way.
6. If your bike has a high crossbar and you are going uphill and suddenly lose speed to the point where you may come out of the saddle, for the love of Hastur, tip sideways. Even if you are female. Not forward. SIDEWAYS.
7. Google Maps wants you dead. If the road it suggests looks bad, it is. Find somewhere safer.
8. Everyone falls. Everyone.


In other news, I finally got to the 9/11 memorial in Bayonne yesterday, around sunset. It's... it's an impressive place. I'm glad I made it there around dusk, because you have to go through Cruise Port Bayonne to get there, and at that time of day nothing is happening in the port and no one is there. It's not quite as quiet as the place I found in Bayonne where it feels like the quiet of waiting for the end of the world, but it's an appropriate kind of stillness.

Comments

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

You have more interesting road-neighbors than I do.

[camwyn]

I didn't get the full company name off the explosives truck, but it was some kind of architectural demolitions firm's property. Bright red, though. Looked like a converted Garda armored truck. And as for the LOX tanker, we have a lot of both hospitals and industry in the area.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

Some of that almost read as a super hero origin story. = ]

[camwyn]

Which reminds me:

9. If you're headed towards the river, SLOW DOWN. I don't care if you're planning to turn. SLOW. DOWN.

.... the Hudson is kind of a superhero origin waiting to happen, the way I see it.

[moiety-tx.livejournal.com]

As it happens, most of these are pretty damn relevant to driving a car too. (Probably less the crossbar one)

[camwyn]

True! It's just that for me, driving a car rarely comes into the picture. Special occasions, mostly. For driving a car I should probably add:

1. Even if you own a gun, your vehicle is probably the deadliest and most dangerous weapon you will ever own.

My mom told me once that her dad told her that the day of her first driving lesson, to ensure that she respected her vehicle and everyone else on the road around her. It's a good thing to remember in any case. And I'm not just saying that because I spend most of my road time outmassed and out-armored eighteen or nineteen to one.