I Want To Ride My Bicycle!

For those of you who know me in Real Life, I am a bit of a wimp. I got hit by a car when I was in college whilst riding my bicycle and thusly began a twenty year boycott of all things wheeled that are not enclosed by half a ton of steel, aluminum and/or fiberglass (the  occasional ride in a hot ragtop, excepted, of course). I would periodically make an effort to throw a leg over a cycle here and again, generally on vacation somewhere near a flattish, sandy area, but inevitably the sound of a body (my own) hitting the hood of a car would begin echoing inside my head on an endless-loop and I would crawl off sniveling, cringing quietly, and walk the bicyle back to its place of origin.

Around here, not only do the majority of citizens own and use a cycle or scooter daily, they do it blithely unaware that they are surrounded by automobile-pilots who may as well be driving blindfolded. No kidding. This is a totally crappy photo, but look at it closely. I am snapping from the backseat - what you see on the road in front of you is a turning arrow going in the opposite direction. This is a classic, must-have photo of one of Jackie's more stunning driving tactics. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy having a driver, but there are arrows painted on many, many roads around here. And drivers just don't seem to get that they are meant to go in the direction of the arrow. Not against. This particular evening, I managed to open my eyes and release my death grip on the overhead handle long enough to snap a photo of that blessed arrow coming right towards me. It happens more than you can imagine - daily, I would muse. Mundane? Indeed. Images of death while encased in half a ton of steel, aluminum and/or fiberglass play inside my head on an infinite loop that is quite mundane, if one defines "mundane" as "common; ordinary," which dictionary.com in fact does.

Rant over, back to the cycling bit.

I did, however, manage to do some bicycle riding this past summer. We lived for an idyllic, transitional three months (between selling the 130-acre NJ farm and moving to the city of Nanjing) in Doylestown, PA. We rented a little ten-acre farmette and lived a short bike-ride down a deserted dead-end road to a lovely park that had a six-mile macadam bike-only loop around a lake. If you failed to follow the above contorted sentence, read my lips: "No traffic."

Not being one to do things halfway, I bought a bike trailer into which I could stuff both children, and almost daily would bike around the lake, hauling 37 kilos-'o-kid (about 80 pounds). Up and down hills. Some serious hills, truth be told, but I really loved the feeling of the wind in my helmet as I biked beside the lake, and as the summer wore on (and we bought a tandem for Tom, and Jeff joined us on the weekends), I realized how much I missed biking. With no traffic to start the endless body-on-car-hood-loop in my brain, somehow the fear receded, and biking became a pleasure again. The 37-kilos-'o-kid aside, of course.

When we lived in Jin Mao, the grocery store was so close, as was the barber shop, the subway, our favorite eateries, the costume tailor, and the assorted other local places I generally walked to, that I didn't really think about purchasing a bicycle. And, really, the traffic here is more scary than I can possibly explain. Cars and buses are dangerous, but at least you can hear them coming. Bikes and scooters do not obey any sort of generally accepted traffic patterns - they go in any direction, do not pay attention to lights, and they are quiet. As quiet as death, one might say, if one were the morbid sort. So, one can look both ways, check the light, look both ways again, mumble a quick rosary, look both ways again, step off the curb and be mowed down by an electric scooter going in the wrong direction down a one way street. Like I said, mundane.

Oh, and then there are the taxi drivers. In this country, apparently, one is allowed to make a right hand turn on a red light. Ha! Apparently, one is actually allowed to ignore red lights all together!! Ha, ha!! But I have had a random selection recently of cabbies (at the odd times when Jackie is actually carting Jeff around somewhere) who have arrived at a red light, made a quick right hand turn, only to immediately U-TURN!, then make the right on the green light, to continue straight. I should do a schematic of that one. It's a neat trick, designed to cause the ex-pat heart to leap immediately from ones chest into ones throat and remain there for something like the next 48-hours. And yet, frankly, at this point, living in China, this traffic move qualifies as mundane. Really. It is pretty ordinary.

Also, there is stuff like this:

China is rather infamous for plethora (plethoras??) of open man-hole covers, drains, and assorted undefined deep, dark crevices. There are fissure all over the place that small children are wont to disappear in to. So, you have to keep your eyes open all the time. One never knows when the surface that you are depending on to maintain your upright position will up and disappear. Like I said, mundane.

Riding a bicycle into this maelstrom seems to me to be an additional layer of danger in what is already pure mayhem. Which did not stop me from running out and buying a bike immediately upon our arrival in January. There is a logic to this, which I will try to explain.

On my way to the grocery store. Note the absence of bags. We did fly kites that day, so that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

First, we live in Ghost-Town Central. So, the traffic is pretty minimal. And, as I have elucidated, Ghost-Town Central is a Planned Community. We are surrounded by six and seven lane roads. Which typically have no more than three or four cars at any given point in time in your average kilometer. And maybe one bus an hour. So, there's plenty of margin for error. Additionally, not many people live around here. Which means bike and scooter traffic are minimal. And the supermarket, while close, is a good twenty minute walk. Or a two-minute drive if Jackie is available. But, really, on a lovely spring day, who wouldn't rather bike to the market than drive over in the Red Machine of Certain Death?

My bicycle is quite lovely - it's a $50 US Decathalon (local sports store) bike, which makes it pretty high end for these parts. I have a rather nifty, hard to break into lock, which only means that I have added maybe a month to my "bike ownership period" rather than prevented theft. There's simply no such thing as preventing bike theft. Bikes, particularly bikes belonging to loony foreigners who bike rather than let their driver's drive them to the supermarket (and wear helmets!! Whaaaat??? Crazy foreigner!!) often find themselves in a swiftly revolving-door bike ownership program, with the amount of time from owner to owner contingent on (a) the size of the lock, (b) the number of locks and (c) the lock breaking speed/ability of the soon-to-be-next owner. Yeah, bikes get stolen a lot.

I did try to buy a "beater-bike," thinking it would be less stressful to have an old, crappy bike that was more likely to still be outside my Suguo when I was finished grocery shopping, but the problem with buying an old bike is one of logistics. How to you get it from point A (point of purchase) to point B (home)? The only way is to ride it. And there was simply no way I could ride a bike through downtown Nanjing. Really, there are limits.

The net of it all is that I probably bike out for my groceries three days a week. I still stop at the market almost every day, so some days I cheat and let Jackie stop on the way to pick up the children from school. But on any day when I have an hour, I'd much rather hop on my bike and go. It's tricky, of course, because once you get past the traffic issues, the road hazard issues, the Plan B issues (because you need a Plan B in case you walk out of the Suguo clutching 8 kilos of groceries and your bike is gone), there is still the issue of how you manage to get those 8 kilos of groceries home. On the bicycle, that is.
 

As a fellow China-blogger noted on her blog today (noting on her blog that she noted it from another China-blogger - if you ever wondered where we go for writing inspiration, now you know) that come June, plastic bags will no longer be handed out at Chinese markets. I believe you will still be able to buy them, but as of mid-June it will be illegal for a merchant to hand you your purchase in a free plastic bag. No joke. Jeff and I have been aware of this for some time, and have been practicing Safe Shopping, by bringing our own bags when we go. Most of the time. I do forget. And I mostly forget on those lovely spring days when I hop on my bike for a leisurely ride to the market. Those days when if I had my head on straight I would bring a backpack, since my bike basket and back rack only carry so much stuff. "So much" generally being a lot less than the 8-kilos I always seem to waddle out of the store with.

There's nothing quite so awkward as having some person shouting at you  (in a mostly foreign language) because you have left a trail of mushrooms, cucumbers, and a few containers of grapefruit soda trailing behind your bicycle. Luckily, I go pretty slowly, head swiveling first left, then right, then left, then right again, to watch out for those silent, pesky electric scooters, so haven't actually lost anything permanently yet. And, I have through trial and error, worked out the Nuanced Impact of Gravity on Various Grocery Items As It Relates to Physical Position in Your Bike Basket. Look for the upcoming abstract in the New England Journal of Modern Day Physics.

Thanks to all who sent good wishes on the Muse Hunt. It is possible she has returned. ;-)

 

Comments

[Emryss]

My guess is that it makes people feel important to drive with the arrows pointing at them.

I remember the days of shopping with my bike, but alas, the City has grown larger and more scary, and somebody turned up the gravity while I wasn't looking.

[Kyra]

In Canada it is legal for a person to turn right on a red light! Except in Quebec.. but they just like to be different.

[Jennie (Kementari)]

In most parts of the US one is allowed to turn right on red, too. The sticking point, though, is that one is required to stop first: I am guessing that is where the China vs US Cultural Driving Divide crops up... ;-)

True story, though: In Idaho (as of 2003, anyway), a bicyclist is not required to stop for a stop sign so long as it would be said cyclist's turn anyway. Perhaps this is due to immigration patterns that have resulted in a large Asian population in the Pacific Northwest...

[Ellen]

The joke about right turn on red was really meant to poke fun at what I suspect is a complete absence of all traffic regulation. There might not be ANY laws. I'm not sure if you can or can't turn right on read - but I am pretty sure that no-one cares. ;-)

But on second thought, there MUST be some kind of regulation? Why else would someone (a) make a right turn on red, (b) u-turn, (c) turn right again to continue straight, when they could simply run the initial red light? Ah, well, mine is not to question why, mine is to close my eyes and hold on tight.

[Faith]

You go girl!

But, i do recommend you get a crate for the back of your bike. You can connect it to your rack back there with plumbers rings. i used one like that and still have it. It's amazing how much you can carry in it. Then you have crate, basket, and some groceries hanging from your arms. Panniers might also help.

DO NOT USE A BACKPACK. If you do fall, get hit by car, etc; you do NOT want anything hard on your back that could cause impact fractures on your spine. I knew a man who had a flashlight in his back pocket and fell off. Parapalegic. I know stories like this are rare, but the spine is not designed to have anything pressed into it. Especially if from a fast impact.

I have done my duty!

[Ellen]

Danger duly noted. I can't really imagine myself trying to bike with a backpack - I'm pretty unsteady about the whole thing, given my tragic bike riding history. But the crate! Now there is a great idea! The difficulty will be in locating such an item ... but I see them around, so surely one can be located!