winter showers bring spring cyclists

almost as bad as driving around snow is my newest challenge: driving around bicyclists. as the snow melts, hundreds of thousands of bicyclists emerge in madison, pedaling their way to and fro, enjoying the sunshine after the long winter months.* many are commuters, cycling to work and/or school, and were i to wear a hat, it would be off to their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. others are serious bikers, wearing special biking clothes, helmets, shoes. a friend of mine here owns five bikes. seriously, who needs five bikes? but, you see, they're all different kinds of bikes. utility, racing, mountain, and variations therein. madisonians do not fool around when it comes to cycling. [to give my friend her props, she did have a tramatic bus ride last week - she got hit on by a toothless man and a blind woman sat on her lap. i'd ride a bike too if the bus was my alternative transportation.]

madison is a pretty friendly bike town. there are bike lanes on most major streets and most bicyclists are defensive drivers, but omg, there are just so many of them! to your right while you're driving, crossing the street while you're waiting to turn left, waiting at a stoplight next to you. and what happens when the bike lane ends? all of a sudden, you're sharing the road with them, you can't get too close to the car on your left, you don't want to hit the biker on your right, you find yourself gripping the steering wheel at 10 and 2 with white knuckles and a tension headache. the worst is when there's a right turn lane, a bike lane to its left, you're in the driving lane to the left of the bike lane, and you need to get into that right turn lane. you have to cross over the bike lane. i think i check my mirrors and over my shoulder, like forty-five times before i cross over.

oh! and you should see the looks the bicyclists give you! behind their special bicyclist sunglasses are eyes full of judgement. 'why don't you ride a bike?' they ask. 'why are you driving a car, polluting our environment, not being healthy and exercising like me?' my eyes send messages right back. 'why don't you move to madison from los angeles where no one rides their bikes or takes the bus because the roads aren't pedestrian friendly and the bus system stinks? how do you have enough time to ride a bike or take the bus which takes three to four times longer than driving your own car? oh, not in a phd program and studying sixteen hours a day? excuse me while i cross over your bike lane.'

so, yet another challenge, albeit one i can definitely handle. although, come to think about it, when i was learning to drive around snow, i did hit a car...bicyclists beware.

*these numbers have not been verified