Why I Cycle
I was cycling home last night from Australian Technology Park where I checked out the lovely Finders Keepers markets.
By the time I finished work, the roads were quite dry and it was a lovely evening.
It was so quick to cycle to Fratelli Fresh on Mitchell Rd. (Which by the way, is a much different vibe to the one in the city on Bridge St.. Not so corporate - more families / wider age range. Much nicer I think.)
(google maps)
Anyway, on my way home at around 10pm, I realised why I cycle.
I cycle because, I dislike public transport.
This blog post pretty much sums it up -
I love cycling over public transport because:
- It leaves from my doorstep to exactly where I need to be.
- I can depart whenever I want without waiting for a vehicle that may or may not be coming soon.
- I don't have to deal with the awkwardness around being near random people.
- I don't have to sit on / touch dirty seats & handrails.
- I am in control of the speed and route at which I travel.
- I am engaged and interested during my commute.
- I see much more than the inside of a large motor vehicle. So many cats and dogs and cool buildings and people!!
- I get exercise while I'm doing it.
- I don't have to spend 20 minutes or $20 on parking.
Safety
While I was cycling home - I was thinking, this is amazing, I am travelling home independently very late at night.
I would never do this if I had to catch public transport!
That is because I feel like it's unsafe.
Cycling is a little safer because I can go straight from door to door (without having to stand and wait in a dark / unknown area).
However, as I usually select cycling routes that are a bit more quiet, off the main streets, if something were to happen to me, I'm not sure what I would do.
For example, if a group of people were to come up to me and want something from me for some reason, I would have no way to get out of that situation.
I could ride away, but my commuter bike is quite slow and if it was me against a group, I'm not sure if I could out-cycle a fit person.
Also, if I had a fall or something on a quiet street, perhaps there wouldn't be anyone around to help me.
So I was considering getting an ICE Dot.
ICE stands for In Case of Emergency.
In the event of a crash sensor, a signal will be sent to the app on your smartphone (via bluetooth) that will send a message to the US servers which will contact your specified emergency contacts by the specified methods with a specified message.
Video demonstration here:
Cycling Tips review:
From these articles, the sensor seems to be set off by anything stronger than dropping your helmet from a 20cm height.
The gps seems to be accurate to 100m (tested outside).
The Local Bike Shop said that the ICE dot can be attached to all helmets, it's just a matter of working out where it can fit on your helmet.
As I don't really do any offroad / outside city rides - especially not alone - this would probably suit my purposes as I would always have mobile reception / enough battery for data & gps.
It's $179 + $10 annual subscription.
Which I think is a reasonable amount to pay for safety.
Unfortunately, I have a Samsung 4 and ICEdot are still ironing out bluetooth issues with Samsung, so I will wait a little bit and see if they can work that out. (It seems compatible with iphones - ios7 - and other android 4.3)
Perhaps in the meantime, I will install one of those partner tracking apps instead. :)
