Wednesday 28 March 2007

Very silly riding

This video is easily the silliest bit of cycling that I have ever seen. Here was me thinking that it was naughty to start moving off from the line at the lights before they go green.

A few comments.

The road surfaces in New York look to be in much better condition than here in Sydney. Although the quality of the video is grainy, the roads don't seem to be an unending stream of potholes and badly patched potholes. You couldn't ride this quickly down an average Sydney street without the wheels vibrating off your bike.

The lanes look a lot wider, as there is more space between vehicles, even between buses. You could barely fit a rolled up newspaper between two buses side by side here, let alone ride between them. When I ride down the middle of two lanes between cars, there is often not enough room to squeeze in between two Barinas.

The landscape looks nice and flat, so they can get up to a good speed and sustain it. Given that Sydney has a hill every 50 yards, this type of thing would be difficult to do over here. Too much up and down, and not much space between traffic lights. The blocks in NY are a hell of a lot longer than those in Sydney, so there is more room to get up and go between the lights.

I've never seen cyclists go through red lights and across pedestrian crossings here like these idiots do - not even couriers. It's an interesting video, but it has been produced by complete dickheads.

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