TWO WHEELS BAD, FOUR WHEELS GOOD....
Where Anna wonders whether cars do, in fact, feel they are superior to bicycles simply by being bigger, more solid and more upright.
You know....
Taller.
Smarter. Noisier.
And more of them.
Some behave like they do, charging around dominating the whole show.
(In an Animal Farm kind of way)
Just that in recent news, this funny (Hysterical!!) thing happened the other day... a beautiful, sunny day, making myself head out and about from my curtained-off corner in the world, WHEN:
A reasonably large, buttercup-yellow Four-Wheel Drive truck comes moving firmly and in an authorative way through the intersection I happened to be riding across on my mountainbike, round five on a Sunday.
Bloody freakin b***ery bang smash, on the road.
Which actually, wasn't that funny, really.
And happened VERY quickly.
Still kind of not funny, six weeks later,'nough said.
The blind female driver of the truck, having left her seeing-eye Golden Lab at home, hit the frame of the bike with her bumper, sending me flying over her bonnet, onto the road and breaking my bike into four large bits, fortunately not actually running us over. Just knocking off, hard and fast...
She stopped, talked me down and gave myself and bike bits a ride back home, apologising several times.
I ended up in A and E for a hell of a long time waiting for x-rays and plaster for the wrist I had taken my impact on. At the time, a seriously painful area and suspected fracture in the whatsit under my thumb, inside right wrist.
And I discover there is apparently a chronic shortage of available doctors in every area of my local Accident and Emergency Department, especially when there happens to be a particularly nasty run of serious emergency ambulance admissions happening all at once.
As there was.
Staff mentioned that it was basically a normal extremely busy night, insisting that I write in and complain, giving me appropriate forms to take home and fill out, not really thinking about the fact that my entire hand was in solid plaster and there was no way I could hold a pen for a while...
Point being? stay off the damn road, maybe? maintain a 360 degree perimeter at all times? Bikes are too dangerous for roads these days?
The Hmm Found It Out Along The Way Point being? that the local DHB simply doesn't allocate anywhere near enough funding to entice enough doctors into it's A and E to cope with the accident traffic they have.. not particularly acceptable...
The most Painfully Clear Point being, that in a battle for ownership of the tarmac,cars win. And casts are a pain.
