Pedal Strike

Everyone’s heard of the old person that got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of milk, fell down some stairs, and croaked.

I feel like I’m dangerously close to actually being that person. Except I’m not old [in the relative scheme of things] and this is all going to happen on a bike.

Because while it’s only the second week of school, last night I found myself half groping through my usual commute, squinting in the dark as if that’s going to somehow fix my 0/0 vision. It didn’t, obviously, but feet fueled by hunger bordering on starvation and getting crowded out of the lane by impatient cars, it did help that I knew my route well.

Newton likes to keep things dark, but even along Comm Ave – which actually has functioning street lights – the shadows of trees like to hide all the sneaky potholes that are just deep enough to fall into. My trusty Knog light kept the more attentive drivers at bay but I’d still need one of those intense headlights [the kind you actually strap around your head] to actually illuminate the street.

Because I’m as blind as a bat. The only thing keeping me from eating shit on the way home was the fact that I knew what to avoid and where. But cutting across the Boston College undergrad campus, and hopping onto Beacon, I discovered something new.

A bike lane…! Marked off on both sides of the street in bold white lines that I could see even without the aid of sunlight. And while I know the bumps and cracks on that stretch of road nearly by heart, it’s reassuring to know that a couple feet of asphalt have officially been sectioned off for my personal use.

Of course, this has the potential to put me right back into that dangerous old-person-dying-in-her-house scenario. Because the whole assumption behind that is that you know your house well enough to get around with no lights on. But of course you’re wrong and you end up paying the consequences. Which sucks when you have to die for it.

Maybe I’ll stick to taking my chances on Comm Ave…

Tags:   beacon · bike lane · blind · comm ave · commute · dark2 Comments