Where to Ride

One bit of slack a cyclist faces: where to ride. In some places cyclists that ride out in the street are respected. In other places, like the city I reside in, cyclists get a lot of flack for riding in the street from these angry drivers that are all "*snort* OMG STAY OFF THE STREET IF YOU CAN'T KEEP UP WITH MY BEHEMOTH SUV OMG OMG OMG".

Here is what I do:

I don't ride on a busy street. I take mainly side street and bike path routes. I am scared of the drivers in Wichita and their selfish attitudes, therefore, I am scared of riding on busy streets.

There is only one busy street that I ride on, and in reality, it isn't all that busy. I ride on that street because the sidewalks aren't very well maintained and usually are littered with glass shards. After one shard of glass cut my tire and inner tube up I decided that I would be riding in the street on said street from there on out.

I've gotten a couple of honks and odd glares from a couple of people, but a majority of the people don't seem to care when I'm riding in the street. That's encouraging.

The other day I was riding on the side street, and I came to an intersection at one of the busy streets. I looked over to my right, saw cars, and then looked to my left. What I saw to my left astounded me--two older ladies were in their electric wheelchairs, riding in the street, against traffic, with a sidewalk just a few feet next to them. I know that Kansas Law states that pedestrians that walk in the street must walk against the flow of traffic, but it also states that a sidewalk must be walked upon whenever available. Guh.

I'll never understand some people.