Sunday, October 2, 2011

Word to the wise: don't text and bike




In most of the Swedish cities I have lived in or visitede there are elaborate bike trail systems. This is great. This means that I can get from my house to the park without ever seeing a car. Yay. But it also gives bikers (and by this I mean cyclists or bicyclers and not 'bikers') a false sense of security.

How moving forward on two wheels without a helmet while holding your phone in one hand and trying to push a series of letters while glancing at a tiny screen makes sense to anyone anywhere ever, is beyond me.

Mostly sometimes I wish these people would just drop their phone. It would be an expensive mistake that hopefully they would never repeat. But I do get worried they might hit a small child or a moving vehicle and cause themselves severe damage.

And while I am whinging about bicyclists (who in reality are doing so much good for our society), am I the only one who thinks it is mad to bike with headphones on? I love listening to music, but if I can't hear the traffic I don't have a real sense of what is around me. So I'm constantly nagging The Swede to quit biking with his headphones on.

Just in case you didn't catch on, I'm a nervous biker. And even more so now that I have one of those friggin scary kid-carrier-seats attached to the back.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with you. I would never dream of trying to text message while riding my bike and nor do I ever listen to music. I love music but just like you I think it is dangerous to not be able to hear what is going on around me. I bike through the city everyday and you just have to pay attention and keep both your eyes and ears open or it can get really dangerous.
    Take care on your bike :-)

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