This bike ride's extremely smooth, and weighs next to nothing. I'm pretty sure that my lock might weigh the same as my entire bike, and I love it because it allows me to fly home, that is in most cases. Today, flying down the bike path wasn't a great idea due to all of the rain we've gotten from last night into this afternoon. Riding down Ben Gurion I thought to myself, "Wow, people say you should ride/drive slower on wet roads, but I can still fly." Within a minute I hydroplaned, fishtailed, and nearly fell, but luckily my newly found balance saved me and I stayed upright. Believe me that I kept it at modest speeds for the ride home.
As much as I love my bike and riding everywhere, the people of Tel Aviv, can make it difficult, annoying, and even at times dangerous. Let us begin with pedestrians. Oh pedestrians, the large majority of you walk around absolutely clueless due to the fact that you're glued to your smartphone, and as a result have no idea where you're walking or what's around you. From this group I far prefer the people actually talking on their phones because they may see you coming, whereas the texters and candy crushers wouldn't know if a volcano erupted in front of them. Both however do what I like to call the zig zig walk (Menachem, if you're reading you know that our Shuk discussion greatly inspired this post). You'll be riding behind these people, who will usually be in the bike lane (oh yes I'll get to that in a second), and instead of walking in a straihgt line the go from right to left. Passing these people can be extremely challenging as you'll be riding by them when all of a sudden the nearly walk into you as they continue their zig zag. A bell usually prevents this, but if the zig zaggers are listening to music beware because they may as well be blind and deaf, and as a rider you have to treat them as such.
Oh yes, I almost forgot about the bike lane. I usually ride on streets with a bike lane for safety reasons, and these bike lanes are clearly marked as such, but that doesn't seem to stop pedestrians from using them. Now usually I'd say that its a big city with lots of people and their isn't enough room on the sidewalk, but believe me there always is enough room being that the sidewalk is normally three times the size of the bike lane. It's basically the equivalent of that asshole flying up the shoulder when traffic is stopped because he doesn't feel like waiting for it to start moving again. Well, maybe that's an over exaggeration, but in any case it's frustrating.
You may think that bike riders have some kind of common respect for one another and that we're like one big fraternity with respect and all that jazz, but let me tell you, most bike riders ride like absolute assholes. First of all, I don't know how many people here come from the commonwealths of Great Britain, but here in Israel, people drive on the right hand side of the road. In addition, it makes sense that when walking and biking you should stay to right, but the citizens of Tel Aviv have no yet grasped this concept. I stay to the right and people are constantly riding right towards me, and they don't move, like they're where they should be. So frustrating. And then you have the people on electric bikes and scooters, which I have to admit are pretty cool, but they act like they own the sidewalk because they can fly by you. I've had and seen more than one close call with those guys and let me tell you that the electric cyclers have no remorse and think their the shit.
The last group, and believe it or not, the least of my problems is the automobile group. For safety reasons and due to the crazy Israeli drivers I usually keep it to the sidewalks, and honestly when I'm crossing the street on a green and cars are turning right most of them yield with no problem. The scary part is how people slow down and give you the signal to go but they always stop too close for comfort, and there's always a small part of my brain thinking that they're messing with me and that they're not going to stop. And that my friends is why I wear a helmet. I'd say the majority of riders go helmetless, which is a personal choice, but I worry about the idiots who I see everyday texting and driving, or the idiots who turn left on a red putting people like me in danger. Have no fear friends, I'm protected. I highly recommend biking to anybody living in Tel Aviv, as it's msotly bike friendly, but just beware of the above-mentioned dangers. Oh and here's my helmet, don't judge the diamond, it's the design, not my own personal artwork:
