Road rules

The roads are bad, in Little Smoke; it is the wealthiest city in the nation, but the roads are shit.  They are cracked and filled with potholes.  I suspect that the tax rates are very low here and so they don't spend money on the roads.  In BigSmoke the roads are less bad.  There are so many roads there that it is difficult to keep up with the maintenance of them.  In MiserySaga the roads are great, it is because much of it is new and they spend money on maintenance.  

Road kill gets picked up quickly in BigSmoke, but in LittleSmoke it can stay around for a week or more.  In LittleSmoke there are bits of metal lying on e sides of the roads, there is a mixture of storm drain covers, some of which are quite dangerous for bikes.  That is what this is about: driving bikes in LittleSmoke and area.  

BigSmoke, LittleSmoke and MiserySaga.  Bicycle lanes.  MiserySaga has a few good bicycle lanes and some of them have sensors for turning the lights, so this is good, they have many bicycle only pathways through the city and this is very nice.  The coverage is not 100% but it is better than many.  LittleSmoke sucks.  There is a very few bicycle only routes but they are not marked and they are short.  Their bike lanes are ephemeral where they exist.  They start as wide as your hand, widen to half a meter and then disappear.  It can be quite mind boggling.  BigSmoke has the best bike lanes, but only in the downtown areas.  

The people.  Most people are resentful about bikes on roads.  They honk a lot and they slow down a lot and refuse to come alongside, others pass three meters out.  Some yell and tell you to ride on the side walk.  I tell them that it is called a sidewalk because it is for walking only.  The law says that they have to share the road with me; I get the meter on the right.  I have to obey all the rules of the road too.  When the signs say right lane exits, I move one lane to the left.  When I know the route, I defensively drive to avoid all hazards on the road, because I know that one hit from a vehicle and I am dead.

I signal when I am changing lanes or turning, but I am encountering people who don't know bike signals.  Bike signals were not created for bikes, but for cars.  The driver of a car had to signal their intentions before hand when cars did not have signals.  They are all done with the left hand and arm, because in North America, the driver is on the left side of the car.  Left arm out straight means, I am turning left, not give me a high five.  Left arm, forearm up at a ninety degree angle means, right turn, it is not a wave nor is it a fight against the man power to you symbol, I am telling you I am going to turn right.  The opposite, left arm out, forearm ninety degrees down, means I am slowing down, but I don't use that one except when I am with other bikes.  I developed my own symbols to tell cars things they need to know like, pointing 45° down to the left to let the car behind me know that I am not turning right when the road splits.  There is another symbol I wish I could use more frequently, holding my left arm out an extending my middle finger up.  I would like to use it except if you deserve that gesture, I am usually fighting trying to stay alive after what you did to use it.  

It should be noted that are one group of roads where bicycles are not allowed on them, they all have signs saying so, a red circle with a pedestrian and a bicycle in them.  These signs mean two things, no bikes and pedestrians allowed on those streets and by therefore, they are allowed on every street and road that does not have that sign on it.  If there is a safe bicycle trail, I will use it.  It there is a bicycle lane close by, I will use it. If there is none of those, I will be on the road, right beside you within one meter of the edge.

When I was a teenager I used to ride to school on the TransCanada highway.  It was a two lane highway with no paved shoulder and an eighty km speed limit.  I would ride on the ten centimeters closest to the edge.  When a transport came down the road I would hit the shoulder or I would not depending on how wide a load it was.  I am not afraid of traffic here in the city after that.  When a transport sucks you into the road with his wake there is little to fear from a car going half as fast who does not even fill the lane.  I am afraid of driving in LittleSmoke at night on empty roads–last year I was hit on an empty four lane road by a pickup who wanted to see how close he could get to me.  I still ride, I won't stop.