Saturday, August 21, 2010

Pedestrians & Cyclists - The Waging War

This incident happened 3 years ago, a humorous anecdote to share:

Since the dawn of time... man has always strived to achieve the ultimate comfort in distance travelling. at first, Og & Thar walked happily together, frolicking in the sun, and ran away from dinosaurs together.. then Og had to go and create the wheel, and get all the cave-gals whilst Thar watched in envy, lost in his dust.


a millennia later.. the same battle wages still, heed my tale of pain and humility..

i learnt to ride bikes back in 93, (taught myself, figures), 14 years! and u know the saying, "its like riding a bicycle.."

i took a hiatus from the pedals during my highschool days, then vehemently redonned my biking shorts and started again.

now, i have had a clean record... of sorts. my only major accident came when i was cycling past a pedestrian bridge, and thought it would be cool to ride down the steps.. it was not. I ended up sprawled on the sidewalk having gained more acceleration than I could handle at the time, and hitting the wrong brake (front wheel, do the maths!)

As i was cycling toward oncoming traffic the signal turned red, so i felt it would be... cool (theres that damn word again!) to ride inbetween the two lines of cars waiting at the traffic light. Lo and behold i was gaining speed when all the sudden i see a man step in from behind a jeep.. he never saw me coming :P he never had to, he is walking across a one way street and the traffic light was red, he had absolutely no reason to look to his left!

BAM! collision!!!

we're both sprawled on the floor, i would have given anything to be the guy in the car that we bumped into lookin out the window, it had to look hilarious!

my injuries were minor, a broken pinky, a bumped knee, a scraped elbow.. its the bruises my inner pride that are unrepairable.. the other guy just looked daggers at me, said something, got up and walked away. I wheeled off into the night before he changed his mind..

let that be a lesson to you! for i am both pedestrian street jogger and night cyclist! so i am unbiased in this! Cyclists, keep it on the pavement! Pedestrians, no matter what road you are on.. the cardinal rule of thumb remains ALWAYS LOOK BOTH WAYS!

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