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frequently in a city context, aggression keeps you safe. on a bike, you don't have any metal between your skin and the ground, so it pays to be that way---put yourself in the middle of traffic if you're doing to make a turn, etc. if you don't do it, cars will just run you down. so maybe you're confusing aggressive riding--which is forced by cars and how the drivers are--particularly someplace like the loop in chicago (if you aren't aggressive there, you're in trouble)--with something else.
or maybe you don't pay a whole lot of attention to bikers because you like talking on your fucking cellphone. who knows?
strange thing is that most all the bikers i know and have seen respect red lights, crosswalks, etc. in chicago, you have no choice regarding the former, because not doing it will definitely get you killed. it's the same most cities, but chicago drivers are particularly aggro. i've been riding more or less every day for about a decade at this point--it seems to me that if you think most bikers are reckless, chances are you aren't paying attention. maybe you're talking on your cell. who knows?
with crosswalks, i'm not sure what you're talking about. in terms of crossing, i don't see the problems that are metioned above--and i'm one of those people on a bike---i just don't see it. not even at long lights--pederstrians are rarely in any danger from a bike--but bikes can be endangered by pedestrians, who are often pretty arbitrary in their choices about when to cross, they don't necessarily look for bikes. but i doubt there are a whole lot of experienced bikers who don't walk across a crosswalk if they're in one--pushing yourself along on your bike isn't much different, you're just still mounted.
if you ride in a bike lane in a city, you have to continually watch out for pedestrians--again, i've seen very few problems in all the time i've been riding.
of course there are idiots. i dislike when i see these folk--and i have, and do from time to time--because they make things shitty for the rest of us
the exception--places where anarchy seems to reign----mixed-use trails: the lakeshore trail in chicago on a weekend in summer for example. there, the scariest situations do not involve pedestrians but rather bladers--particularly bad bladers--because their movements are arbitrary and they often do not look behind them when they decide it's a great idea to make a cut. same thing in philly on the loop that runs along the schuykill to the art museum. you have to yell alot to warn people you're coming---it's hard not to want to get up a head of steam on a trail because you can't really do it on the streets. i think everyone tends to obliviousness on these trails, for different reasons. but personally i think roller bladers are a menace.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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