I heard an angel this morning

Now and then, friends come up to me and ask how dangerous it is riding a bike. It could be due to curiousity or maybe they wish to take a bike license themself. To answer that question, I would reply, it is extremely dangerous to ride a bike and every time I go on the road there is always a potential for an accident.


The average cost of a bike is $3000 and the required premium for insurance, road tax and maintainance amounts to only $500 annually. A full tank of petrol which can last a week only cost $14. Now although that seems amazingly cheap compared to the price of owning a car, you have to understand that the savings is at the expense of your life. Personally I feel the gahmen ought to pay us to continue riding. We are more energy efficient, contribute to lower traffic and are more productive in work due to the enhanced sleeping hours. The occupation hazard should also deem us immunity to taxes and road fines.

Ah! Now I can see you are tempted to explore the opportunity to ride a bike after the cost analysis above. Furthermore, the biker image which you covert is nothing to sniff at either. We are calm, cool and composed and chicks dig dudes in bikes. We can zip in and out of traffic and the exhilaration of riding a bike on a nice clear day is quite awesome.

The question that remains is whether you can handle the stress of riding a bike. Today my heart stopped 3 times while on the way to work. You know that feeling when you heart stops. When your teacher asks for that report which you totally forgotten. The panic you get when you open your eyes in the morning and knowing you overslept. That cliff hanging moment at the top of the Stratosphere just a split second before you get thrown down. My heart stops because of traffic scares.

The roads in Singapore is divided into 3 lanes, demarcated by a single broken white line. I normally travel inbetween the second and third lane on the single broken white line for safety reasons.

To illustrate the dangers of riding, allow me to paint a picture. This morning while traveling this route, a truck stopped out of position to my right at a traffic light. This made it exceedingly difficult for me to squeeze through the two vehicles. I did manage to clear this hurdle but not before I knocked into the edge of a BMW 7 series to my left. As you can imagine the driver was clearly shocked and swerved slightly to the left before proceeding to sound his horn and oh boy his looks could kill.

In my defence, I am pretty certain I did not stratch his car. It was a light tap. I got into quite a shock myself, I must have underestimated the space required for my bike. Although it must also be due to his large ass car which he was edging to the right.

Incidents like this occur everytime I ride. Just yesterday, a car drove over my foot in the middle of the road. It was a similar situation except this time I was moving at 60 km/h and a car tried to turn into the second lane. He obviously did not notice me at his blind spot as I was 2 cm away from touching his car. I jammed my brake, came to a stop and put my left foot down which is not the smartest thing to do in moving traffic. "A plague on both your house" I screamed, notice I quoted shakespeare to add to the dramatic effect.

Instances of death are a plenty on the road. Countless old ladies have attempted to knock me down at high speeds, either swerving out at a U-turn or cutting into my lane even though I may be next to them. Its way too similar to GTA, I have a feeling the creator was a rider. I mean there is no way some guy can have so much angst against old ladies unless they ride. I have half a mind to kick cars that are swerving into me to let them know my presence. Seriously the tiny beep that my horn makes doesn't bring across the message I want to present. I sort of want to take a pipe and smash it through their windscreen as I scream, "look before you turn bitch." Instead, I muster up all my force and jam my little finger on the horn as hard as I can which produces a pitched beeeeep. There take that. Its so emasculating.

Clearly I have not emphasis the dangers you might meet on the roads. Sometimes you get them crazy Subaru drivers that believe they are competing in F1, zooming pass a tiny slot between you at 130 km/h. Its enough to give anyone a heartattack.

Even the midgets (I believe you people call them children) are a hazard as they dash pass roads, traffic lights, zebra crossings without a care in the world. My particular favourite is the innocent burning highway of hell. Its a scorching day and you are travelling at 90 on the highway. It is clear of traffic and you feel safe, yet at the back of your mind, you know that one slip and you are roadkill. This fear perpetuates itself when you encounter a bend and at that speed you are put in a position where the only thing you can do is mutter to yourself, please don't wobble, please don't wobble.

Have I mentioned the rain? Its a bikers worst enemy. You should pay attention to bikers when it is raining at a traffic light. Its a sad sad sight. They have this looks of absolute despair on their face as they get drenched. They look so pitiful that you just want to hug them. That being said, beware of them prior to the rain when it starts to drizzle. Such despair only arises because these bikers go absolutely crazy before the rain, especially those without the raincoats. They always have this hope that they will be able to make it to their destination before the rain begins. Normally by that time, it would be too late to avoid getting drenched but that does not stop them from attempting to be like Rossi.

Well I guess I have talked enough for one day. Just remember that those bikers are risking their life everyday, go buy them a drink because they surely deserve it.