Last night I was at a friend’s until about 8:30ish, at which point I realized if I wanted to get home, get some stuff done, and get to bed at a decent hour, I should jet. I had, naturally, brought my bike. When I got to her apartment, someone stopped to watch me fold up the Dahon and lug it up the steps. Afterwards, I biked the 3 or 4 miles home, enjoying the sunset.
Yesterday was a big day for ‘Hey, is that a … It is! It FOLDS!’ bike. The security guards working at Transformers 3 (which filmed near my office) thought it was awesome. They’re working on another movie in the same location, so I got introduced to an all new crew yesterday, who were polite and interested. I have to say, the Transformers people were awesome. They caused a huge traffic jam, and since the light at their corner is long (minutes long, I timed it at 5 once), and it was really hot a couple weeks ago, they came out and gave water to pedestrians and, yes, me. Nice people!
But yesterday I did something I’ve not done in a long time. I took the Lake Shore Bike Path home. It was dark, and I have to say, I’m not super keen on doing that, but I could see packs of cyclists, so I quickly caught up to them and biked in a pack of women. I went with them to the end of LSD’s bike path, and then we all went up to Broadway, where we parted ways.
Biking LSD after dark is … interesting. I have lights, but not everyone else does, so you can’t always see people until ‘Oh shit! There they are!’ Also, a freakishly high number of people don’t wear helmets. If you don’t have lights, you really need a helmet, since the lamps on LSD are iffy at best, and you’re running a higher risk of not being seen. Also, a lot of people have dark helmets without any reflective bits. Again, people, if others can’t see you, you’re going to get hit!
While I rarely bike at night, I have a blinking rear light on the post of my bike, and a steady headlamp mounted (with velcro, I fixed it) on the handlebars. I would never consider riding at night without them, and frankly, I wear the helmet so that if someone ever hit me, I’d win the lawsuit (I’m not sold on their efficacy of protecting what passes for my brain just yet). I’m a fan of biking in regular clothes, but I have reflective stickers on my bike, and I’m planning to sew a strip of reflective cloth onto my shoulder bag (I have a reflective sticker on the back of my helmet already).
For those who kvetch that they don’t want silver on everything, did you know there’s black reflective stickers? CycleGadgets sells them for helmets and cycles, and they could all, easily, be appropriated for your bicycle! There’s also black sew-on reflective fabric tape (3M makes all this stuff too, by the way). Clearly there’s a market for this, though, and I’d like to see people come up with more reflective colors! Until then, I may paint my helmet with reflective paint, to say “Hey! Don’t hit me!”
As for LSD… I won’t be biking it after dark again unless I’m sure I have friends or a pack of women with me. It’s not well lit, and there are just too many psycho freaks out there.