Comment 92530

By moylek (registered) - website | Posted September 23, 2013 at 21:53:25

My wife and I spent the better part of a weekday biking around Manhattan on one of the Bixi-style rental bikes recently. I'm a confident urban cyclist; my wife hates urban cycling - with Hamilton being her only experience with it. But we both found that we felt safer riding in Manhattan during rush hour than we do on Main or King downtown.

Two days later, we tried Boston's Bixi-style system. Not a bad experience, though the seemingly randomly distributed one-way streets drove us nuts and in circles.

And today I criss-crossed Montreal on a Bixi bike. Montreal drivers are sort of crazy. But I felt pretty OK most of the time. Except on the cobblestone of the old city, I confess - that was rougher even than King William.

The main reason we felt safe, I think, was that even in crazy NYC traffic, the cars were never going all that fast. Their was time for me and for drivers to react to each other. Time even to stare down and negotiate with pushy drivers (NYC drivers are famously pushy, but not particularly hostile). And there were no trucks whooshing past me. And I also found the segregated bike lanes relaxing and used them whenever I could. And, of course, I was only one of many cyclists on any given stretch of road.

Let me say this again - Manhattan and Montreal in rush hour felt safer to me than King or Main in Hamilton. This is crazy.

Comment edited by moylek on 2013-09-23 22:03:03

-- Kenneth Moyle Hamilton, Ontario

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