{"id":2525,"date":"2008-05-08T05:26:50","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T10:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2525"},"modified":"2010-01-06T13:38:05","modified_gmt":"2010-01-06T18:38:05","slug":"i-fought-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2525","title":{"rendered":"I Fought The Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I noted on the show last Saturday, I watched this\u00a0 Channel 5 piece on bicyclists that go through stopsigns and lights. <\/a><\/p>\n

And I thought “whooie!\u00a0 I’m a public enemy!”<\/p>\n

I started my biking-to-work season about two weeks ago.\u00a0 It’s not really about gas prices – my company pays half the cost of my “all you can ride” bus card, so I very rarely drive to work anyway.\u00a0 It’s partly about health – I’m 45, and I’d like not to spend the next forty years in hospitals, if I can avoid it – and largely because it just plain feels good<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s an energizing way to kick off the morning, and a relaxing way to end the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s also fun to be able to drive up next to “Obama”-sticker-clad Priuses and yell “you earth-destroying gas-guzzler!”, and watch them wither with guilt.<\/p>\n

One of the little secrets about biking is that if you keep your legs moving, they are much more efficient.\u00a0 If your legs settle into a rhythm – if they don’t have to cool off, then warm up, then cool off, then warm up, then cool off repeatedly – they can, with a little conditioning, keep on going for an amazing time.\u00a0 That’s why proficient bikers don’t coast down hills – it cools down your leg muscles, and makes you exert much more <\/em>energy when you start pedalling again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maintaining a rhythm also leaves you less susceptible to injury.\u00a0 With my very screwed-up right knee, that’s important to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So – like a lot of bikers – I’ll play each stop sign as\u00a0it lies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If I’m pulling up to a sign, I’ll check carefully in both directions, and for cars behind me, and cars ahead that went to turn in front of me.\u00a0 I’ll yield to any of the above, of course, because in addition to traffic laws, I have the laws of physics working against me; my bike and I will bounce off a 4,000 pound car like a pigeon off of a semi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Otherwise?\u00a0 Yep – with great <\/em>care, I’ll go through the intersection.<\/p>\n

So – send a camera crew and a paddy wagon.<\/p>\n

Or at least some ice packs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I noted on the show last Saturday, I watched this\u00a0 Channel 5 piece on bicyclists that go through stopsigns and lights. And I thought “whooie!\u00a0 I’m a public enemy!” I started my biking-to-work season about two weeks ago.\u00a0 It’s not really about gas prices – my company pays half the cost of my “all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking","category-mitch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7714,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2525\/revisions\/7714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}