The daily commute

Everyday thousands of students cycle into campus despite living a short walk away. They are everywhere getting in pedestrians and motorists ways. Campus has lots of cycling lanes but every time you have to cross them you take your own life into your hands, running across them every time there is a 2 second gap. The cyclists never stop unless they are pretty sure they are going to hit someone. I was just leaving campus the other day when Oz called me and the distraction caused me to almost get run over, all Oz heard was "shit!".

Until yesterday I hadn't braved joining in with the cyclists, I valued my life too much, but I was running late for classes that always started early and so didn't feel I had much choice. Damn it was scary and frustrating, no one cycles that quickly, they frequently have the phone jammed under their ears chatting away (some Americans rarely seem to be without a phone attached to them, they can talk for hours, I can manage 2 minutes at most). They also don't understand how to use roundabouts, there are v.few in the US, but the campus cycle routes have several, they don't realise that if you're going to turn off you need to be in the outside and this frequently results in collisions or halts.

Cyclists reign in Isla Vista (the area next to campus where most students live), they pay no attention to the rules of the road, never stop when there is a stop sign and never ever signal. I'm very glad not to be a driver as they have an unofficial speed limit of 20 mph otherwise they will kill the cyclists who zooms straight across the intersection without looking. I dread to think what happens when someone unused to IV drives around it.

Added to the problems of errant cyclists there are the pedestrians who walk in the middle of the road. This is partially due to the fact that the sidewalks either don't exist or randomly stop and start - it is just easier to walk in the middle of the road. There is a running joke that if you want to spot freshmen (first years) just see who is walking on the sidewalk.

At night everything becomes a lot more difficult, the roads aren't that well lit, cyclists don't use lights and cars have to crawl around. I get quite scared about cycling at night, but then I too don't have lights and stick to the cycling lanes whenever possible.

If I survive this year without being hit it will be impressive.