daphne's bicycle season part one: ego strength

It is bicycle season again!

This week as I perch on the edge of a chair or climb the stairs, my body reminds me of this season.

But when I am on the road, I hardly notice my muscles and tuchus are sore as I pedal from place to place.  

{Love: Hate}

Beyond the soreness of getting back into the saddle, however, this season tends to start with a little conflict as I {re}develop my bicycle ego strength.

Each year I set a goal to replace at least two car trips each week with bicycle trips.  My goal was initiated out of the realization that I typically commute less than three miles to work or play and with the seasonal road construction, it takes me longer and longer to travel by car.   In addition, the rise in gas prices and my ever-increasing awareness  {ask me sometime what I envision/think every time I turn the key in the ignition} of emissions pollution from my car use make it difficult to ignore the benefits of non-motorized travel.

So every year, I pump air into my bike tires, strap on my helmet, and hit the road!

And every year my presence on the road {because that's where I prefer to ride and p.s. that's where bikes are "supposed" to ride} is met with motorists yelling {or displaying} obscenities, giving obnoxious honks {you try biking up this hill, yo!}, and motorists buzzing me as they pass or clipping me at intersections.

{I am pretty sure I am not invisible}

And for the first 3 weeks I ride, I feel exhilarated with the freedom from the confines of motorized travel but also discouraged in my efforts to share the road.  Every time I ride I have to tell myself: 

{you have a right to be here...you have a right to be here...you have a right to be here...}

You see, intellectually, I am confident of my right to be on the road but the experiences I have push back at that confidence, reinforcing what John Forester refers to as cyclist-inferiority 

{a false belief that cyclists are inferior to motorists}.  

In other words, I feel pressured to get off the road from motorists' {false} sense of superiority.

{Lame, yeah?}

One year, in an attempt to assuage my anxiety, I started looking in the Michigan bicycling laws and other related information to find what I already knew: bicycles are recognized as vehicles under Michigan state law and cyclists share the right, with motorists, to travel on the road.  As an additional note, cyclists are required to obey traffic laws, which include stopping at lights and stop signs, signaling when turning or stopping {which reminds me I need a refresher on how to signal when I am stopping}, and riding as far right in a lane as safely possible.

And so this year, I am once again reminded of my rights {and responsibilities} as I get on the road again - using my skinny rubber tires to get from here to there.

{I have a right to ride here...I have a right to ride here...I have a right to ride here...}