I Want To Ride My Bicycle....

You might be surprised at the number of bicycles and amount of cycling that goes on here in Charleston - especially given the stereotype of Americans as being car obsessed, petrol (gas) guzzling fiends who will hop in the car to drive all of a 5 min walk down the road. Okay, so the latter largely holds true - but it remains that I have noticed quite a few bikes on the roads since I arrived here some 20 months ago (is it really that long?). Perhaps since getting a car of my own, I may have noticed it even more - and certainly since returning to the gym (where a large amount of people go on a weekly club to ride their bikes in a stationary position, before putting it in the back of their cars and driving home. I know!). Anyway, as usual I'm digressing, as the point of this post is not really the surprise at seeing bikes over here, but more as to how stupid the people who are riding them seem to be.

First things first and it's looking at the law - which does not require you to wear a helmet over here (both on push bike and motorbike, can you believe), and an awful lot of people don't - on both kinds. This is especially crazy given how bad some of the drivers are here. This is also incomprehensible when we go to the next point - namely how bad some of the cyclists are themselves. We have those who ride around at 8pm in the pitch black without lights, or reflective clothing or anything at all to let the drivers know they're there. And they do the stupidest things like riding across a junction when the lights are about to change red, or veering across the road randomly (without indicating) or, get this, driving down the wrong side of the road straight towards the oncoming traffic and often in the middle of the road itself. This occurs both in daylight and in the dark, I should add. It seems that the cyclists hand the responsiblity of their safety to the drivers who have to brake hard, or be ever aware that they're going to do SOMETHING stupid at a moment's notice. Taking the cars out of the equation for the moment and regarding the dual 'foot/bike' path crossing the Ravenel Bridge (that i have been running over in training) and you have the idiots who think it appropriate to go hurtling down the path which is crowded with pedestrians, without a helmet or a bell (to let the people know they're coming) or indeed any cares in the world. all it takes is one mis-step along the way and they're toast. So forgive me if i decide not to join the biking club just yet.