Have I finally joined the NYC bike culture?

After a week of rain, the sun finally decided to show its glorious face. More people are on the street than in the past few months of winter. Crowded sidewalks and streets make it harder for everyone to get around but most people don't seem to mind. It's too beautiful outside to care.

And for some people, it's too beautiful outside to care about looking both ways when crossing the street. Or, to even look at all before quickly darting across the road. Today, a girl crossed LaFayette at Bleeker and the biker in front of me, riding north on LaFayette was caught between traffic on one side and construction on the other. The girl popped in front of him, out of nowhere. He yelled. She got out of the way. No harm no foul.

I started biking in NYC a year and a half ago. I've pedaled through rainstorms, snowstorms and freezing cold days. Not until today, though, have I felt a part of NYC's diverse population of urban cyclists.


The guy ahead of me talked to me at the next light. He asked, "Did you see that?" incredulous at the girl's lack of common sense. We chatted briefly about people crossing without looking, how if we (as bikers, I was one too!) hit them, they get hurt but so do we cause we're gonna fall down too. Cars, they hit whoever and nothing happens to the person inside.

I was on the inside of the understanding, I got him and he got me. We shared the same concerns and reactions. It's especially bad with the nice weather beginning. More bikers are biking and our lane is being invaded by runners and skateboarders and even people just walking there instead of on the sidewalk.

Becoming an urban biker has changed by sense of the limited space between buildings. I'm also a runner. I used to run in the bike lane, especially in the West Village, a land of narrow sidewalks. But biking has showed me that the roads are just as narrow. For everyone to be safe cars need to stay in their lane, bikes in theirs (or to the extreme left of roads w/out a bike lane) and everyone else needs to stay on the sidewalk.

Some bicyclists are rude and unsafe but most of us abide by the basics of proper safety: stopping for pedestrians, stopping (or slowing down) at red lights and keeping to the side of the road. I would love to see more people biking in NYC and even more attention given to making it easier for bikers. NYC is on the right path, I'm excited to see where it goes in the future.