Bike Forums - View Single Post - How do you feel about commuting through "rough" areas?

04-02-09, 10:30 AM

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Pinyon

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Location: Northern Colorado

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It has been a long time since I rode through bad areas, since I moved to Colorado, but I used to do it on a regular basis. The kind of places where people just started shooting at police cars when they pulled into that neighborhood. Good advice above. The tactics that worked best for me were:

Don't ride through there sporting expensive-looking gear. A helmet and gloves were okay, but i tended to wear workout sweats or gym shorts, and used home-made panniers instead of nice ones (made from military surplus ammunition sacks and a couple of scrap pieces of peg-board).
I used to turn off my headlights and blinkies while riding through those areas. Dark-colored reflective gear is okay, but this is one place where being a bike ninja is a good idea.
Vary your route. Pick out 3+ completely different routes to get through and/or around the worst areas, and vary your route randomly. Don't ride the same route every Wednesday, or anything.
Just pay attention, and when in doubt, change your plan or route. Be willing to go around-the-block if you see something suspicious ahead of you.
Forget traffic laws. Your objective is to get through there without causing any trouble, or tempting any street people or thugs that may see you as an opportunity. If you are not an easy target, they just move on.
Don't be rude. Eye contact is okay. A vast majority of the people that live there are nice. They are just poor, and happened to be born and/or end up there. It never hurts to smile a good morning to someone that you see on a regular basis walking to the bus stop for work/school.
If something weird does happen, pedal like mad to get the hell out of there. Don't look back, just GO.

I was deliberately messed with by automobile drivers in "decent" parts of town on a regular basis, but can only think of a couple of times that somebody messed with me while riding through those rougher areas. And they were not as serious or determined about it as people in better parts of town can be. Things are tough down there, and they don't have the luxury of expending so much energy on a grudge against some random stranger on a bicycle.

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