When we started riding bicycles in our neighborhood 6 months ago, there weren't so many cyclists on the residential road. We saw one or two people once in a while.
Since then the population has increased more and more, and that's great! I am happy to see them in our community.
The other day I saw an older lady bicyclist coming up the same side of the center divided road while I was going down. Luckily the road is wide enough for two bicyclists, and no car was coming down from behind of me, so we both were safe even though a car parked on the right side. But my heart was beating from shock. What if an impatient driver came down and passed me, then the driver saw her and tried not to hit her and then hit me!!? The worst senario is not completely impossible in that case.
Even though I knew that is not good, I was very sympathetic about beginner cyclists who were scared to ride in the right direction because cars are coming from their back and they can't see them. But I realized on that day that I was totally wrong to sympathize.
For everybody's safety, free beginner cyclists' classes are needed more often. Just like the one I took before from which I learned a lot. I hope I can take more with a bicycle next time.
Not only drivers education but also bicyclist's education is necessary for sharing the road together. Of course a car has more power than a bicycle, so car drivers have to yield to bicyclists. But still bicyclists should have their responsibilities too.
The time when I was scared of the cars coming from behind me, I stopped and saw the cars passing by, then I started again. Because at that time, I had no confidence not to wobble too much while the cars were passing. When I got tense, I had a hard time to control myself.
I still need to learn into my body so many things about bicycling for reasonably safe riding.
I'm sometimes discouraged riding because of fear, but riding makes me feel so good that I want to work more.
No comments:
Post a Comment