7/20/15

I’d been in the USA for a day and almost got hit be a car.  Traffic doesn’t expect someone to walk out next to an active lane. I forgot that the behavior of drivers in the USA is very different.

7/24/15

I have also been riding my bicycle in the USA. It is so easy to forget how the traffic works.  In Guiyang, you pick a lane and a direction, and that is your path. Others don’t simply cut you off. It is very different on the streets in Traverse City.  To begin with, people don’t seem to look for bicycles and pedestrians. They are mostly aware of the other cars.  I was almost run off the road by a woman who was pulling into a parking space. I was on her right in the bicycle lane. I yelled “Hey Man” in the passenger window, which was fortunately open. She immediately pulled away. She didn’t even know I was there. The “Hey Man” must have sounded like I was in the seat beside her.

I was trying to cross the street near a complex traffic light and I literally had to get off the bike and walk. People don’t seem to give you credit for having an equal right to the road. Well, right now, I feel more danger on US streets to my bicycle than China. Guess I am just used to different traffic rules.