Another Curbside Haiku
Day 49
Unwanted door prize
February 17th, 2012
I'm walking every street in New York City.
This is the counterpoint to my walk across the US. Instead of seeing a million places for just a minute each, I'm going to spend a million minutes exploring just one place. By the time I finish walking every block of every street in all five boroughs, I'll have traveled more than 8,000 miles on foot — all within a single city. Details!
Email me at matt@imjustwalkin.com
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Maps: Progress | Photos
~9,954 miles walked
Your donations allow me to keep walking full-time. If you think what I'm doing is valuable and you'd like to offer some support, I would be very grateful. On the other hand, if you think I'm a worthless bum, feel free to email me and tell me to get a job, bozo. Both are excellent options!
I really love walking and riding a bike but I get so tired of the constant hazzards. Sometimes I just want to yell, Ya, I know you’re gonna try to smash into me so let’s just get on with it.”
I go to the crosswalk and press the button, k, I wait for the walking signal for me to take my turn, k, I watch you start to run me down when I’m not even halfway across the street, K, I fall trying to get away or get hit, KK, roadrash. dumbass.
Ack. You can say that again, Matt. ;-)
This reminds me of when I was the hapless cyclist hit by a cab door.
It was a rainy day, my brakes/tires were wet, and so I’d been braking well before necessary to compensate as I was approaching a red light.
Thank goodness, too, because holding a firm grip on my brake levers is the only thing that kept me from flying completely off my bike, and probably landing in the middle of traffic.
As it was, when my front tire hit the opening cab door, I did something of a handstand on my bike handlebars (while still gripping the brakes), and then slammed back down super hard onto my seat. I bounced around as I landed, banging my body on the metal parts of the bike.
Not only did the cabbie move on without a word, but so did the bleeping passenger responsible for opening the door without looking.
Since I was close to my destination (a friend’s house), I headed there to check my injuries. As you can imagine, I was black and blue for weeks, and one of my thumbs got jammed into the brake lever. What a mess.
(My bike also suffered damages. The front tire rim was bent, as were the handlebars, brakes, and levers.)
By the way, the taxi was at a full stop at the same red light ahead of me, so I had no way of knowing the passenger was going to exit.
Also, for those of you who don’t know, in NYC all taxi passengers are supposed to exit toward the curb, at the curb.