Friday, September 21, 2012

New York streets

Wow two posts within less then a day of each other!

Wanted to follow up on some more observations of my year in New York. This post is prompted by the fact that I got doored this morning by someone hoping out of a cab. First the details of what happened; I was riding in the bike lane west on Charlton Street when I saw a cab in front of me with his right turn signal on indicating he was going to turn north on Hudson Street but he was stopped at the traffic light with another car in front of him and he was not blocking the bike lane so I just continued riding my easy pace and was planning to pass him but when I got to about his rear bumper the fare decide to throw the door open and get out. I tried my best to turn away but my left hand & handlebar hit the door and I also hit a parked car to my right, luckily I didn't go down. The stupid kid that was getting out of the cab just looked at me and so did the drive. This incident and numerous other small things makes me think that New York schools must never have basic safety classes where a police officer comes in for the day and teaches kids about looking both ways before crossing the street or they don't even get taught basic idioms like 'look before you leap'. Now don't get me wrong I'm not looking for the crazy L.A. traffic rules where the police will issue jay walking tickets but I would like to see some basic common sense on the part of New York pedestrians like no walking in bike lanes, look both ways before crossing a street, stay up on the curb until it is safe to cross and other things like that.

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