The Problem With Just Two Wheels
Some times it's hard to ride my bike around town because where I live is a medium size town where everybody drives cars (alone), lives in single-family detached homes, and wouldn't ever ever ever take the bus even if they were given a lifetime supply of Twinkies and a million dollars. Because of that, everyone drives their cars, even though a barrel of oil is trading at $112 a barrel (I saw that on the CNN news scroll at the gym around 0630 today), we have a small problem called global warming promising to end civilization as we know it in like 20 years, Americans are fat, and all the other bad stuff that comes with driving (cell phones - please why??), the only people who ride their bikes around towns are elementary school kids and crack heads. And me. Because I live down the street from a half-way house where men on parole are getting a second chance at something (which for the most part is OK because they mostly keep to themselves) and because everyone who isn't 8-years-old or a junky drives their car every where, I usually get cat calls or someone in a car who doesn't know how to drive with a bike practically runs me over.
Given, most of this is in my mind. A very scary place, but nonetheless it exists. And there's just no respect for cyclists, unless I lived closer to the coast and then I could join a bike club. But I don't. I try to ride my bike around town because gas is so fucking expensive and I hate my car. My Canadian friend observed the same thing in her town - drivers rather hostile to any cyclist because they are used to junkies weaving around the road on bikes, spaced out or angry at the world (whichever), and they just think, If run this crack head over the world will be a better place. She likes to ride her bike, too, and now that she doesn't live in suburban hell, it's become a better experience. I love cities. I don't like small towns. I've decided that because people don't really care if a single woman walks down the street after dark or rides her bike to the gym. I miss that even after 2.5 years not in a city. The Netherlands is cool too because everyone bikes there and I did once after imbibing and it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had.