Biking on the West Bank Sucks - Stupid Wankers

Yesterday when I biked back to Firestone to pick up my vehicle, I realized just how much I was putting my life into my own hands.

Apparantly, the West Bank doesn't think sidewalks along one of the most busy streets is a good idea. There were some in front of the businesses, but going over those stupid little bridges over the canals and along the golf course, there was nothing. It seemed to me that poor people who have to ride the bus and have no vehicle to drive shouldn't be cruising around the neighborhoods that border the golf course since there is no place for them to walk along the road.

It really made me mad. Here are some pictures I took documenting my journey.

The below picture has my women's size 7 flip-flop in the picture to give you an idea how narrow that bridge was. Notice there was no shoulder to really ride on either. And before you say anything, there was no shoulder on the other side of the road where I should have been able to ride along with traffic. And no sidewalk over there too.

Another view of no shoulder, no sidewalk.

Here is another very narrow bridge. There was a shoulder, but I was going opposite traffic. And there wasn't a place to cross unless I wanted to dart across eight lanes of traffic.

Again, notice no shoulder and lots of debris to hinder a biker minding her own business.

This next one was my favorite. One of my friends, Lauren, told me when her then boyfriend-now husband Neill broke his leg, she was shocked at how many sidewalks in New Orleans didn't have ramps going into the curbs. She wondered how people in wheelchairs and motorized chairs got around. This explains the people who just ride along the side of the road during traffic.

Just what were the ramps over the cuub supposed to lead to? If you had a wheelchair, unless it had some off road tires on it, getting over the curb wouldn't do much since there is GRASS along the road and no sidewalk. This has to be the most pointless thing I saw all day. And I surfed around myspace.com a lot yesterday, and saw some pretty inane things. This next photo topped them all for stupidity.

I don't know about George Bush and black people, but there is one thing I've learned while living in New Orleans: The average law abiding, tax paying citizen doesn't give a crap about people who are too poor to have a car and ride the bus. Or have to walk, roll or ride a bike to get to where they are going.