Not Asking for It
The other day I was biking to work when this happened:
I wouldn’t think anything of it if it happened once. But I’ve noticed my attire seems to prompt certain responses in other road users.
How do I know it’s not just an off day? Because I have the ability to change clothes.
Some days I’m this cyclist:
And later that same evening I might be this cyclist:
I’m called out on my appearance daily as I go about my business on public streets without the cover of a car.
Even “ordinary” attire has drawbacks.
It’s no surprise that most days I find myself dressing to get the reaction I want when I bike. Or at least the most benign reaction.
But no matter what I’m wearing it’s still just me: complex, multi-dimensional, and in awesome shape.
Nice homophobia slid in there…
So true!
I live in San Francisco, and people are generally unkind to cyclists. I’m a dress/skirt cyclist most days and people skim by me making annoyed sounds at how slow I’m driving. Then they feel like dicks when they see my two year old in his front handle seat as they pass me. I don’t think they ever stop to think they shouldn’t be dicks to anyone.
Wow that’s really annoying 🙁 sorry you endured such crap. I’m also a dress/skirt cyclist and have ridden around SF as well but for me it depends on the style of dress and how -really- dressed up I am.
yes, but why don’t you have on a helmet in all situations?
Why would she wear a helmet in all situations?
Perhaps because she’s cycled in continental Europe recently and has noticed that over here only weekend sport-cyclists bother wearing the things (…though admittedly that has a lot to do with segregated cycle tracks being much more common than they are in Britain, the USA or Australia, so the fear of being hit by a motor vehicle is far less).
Here in the far south of France I wear a hat whenever I’m out on my bike between April and October. While the risk of a head injury is tiny and hypothetical on French country roads, sunstroke or even melanoma are very real hazards. An elderly foreign gentleman wearing a hat and riding a lumbering Scandinavian utility bicycle is always treated with great respect, I find.
Dear Bikeyface,
I really have enjoyed your last several philosophical cartoon musings; This one, “Asking For It”, and the previous one, “If I Owned the Road”, are really great and have plenty of thoughts in them!
Thanks,
(from) Washington, D.C.
I should have said, “NOT asking for it”, but that is certainly what I meant!