Please watch out for each other! 👹🍣🎎 Wonderful Japan
What can I say, life can be pretty dangerous sometimes. Even if you always take good care of yourself, your own safety and well-being still depend to a large extent on all the other people you encounter in daily traffic. And unfortunately, you never know exactly how well they pay attention to everything that is happening around them.
Pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers— everyone is responsible for ensuring that we all get home safe and sound at the end of the day. And since I myself am on the road in all three roles, I know that things can sometimes get pretty dangerous.
This is especially true for cyclists, who in my experience, are the most vulnerable group of people on the road. Not that they are perfect angels themselves, because they (we?) are sometimes a little reckless on the road as well. But precisely because cyclists move rather quickly and are so easy to overlook, they are at the greatest risk.
About two years ago, I was hit by a car for the first time as a cyclist. It was quite a surreal situation at the time, but fortunately I emerged unscathed. At the time, I would have loved to give the driver a few slaps, but I guess I wasy too perplexed for that. In the end, it was probably better that way, but since then I have been in a few risky situations time and again, in which I was almost run over. As I said, cyclists are really easy to overlook.
And it happened to me again this week. I was on my bike heading to the dentist and wanted to cross the street. On the other side of the street, a few cars were waiting for the green light, and everything was just right for cyclists or pedestrians to cross over without any problems.
But as I set off, there was another car that wanted to squeeze between the waiting cars. And the last car, behind which I was slowly crossing the street, suddenly reversed. Right at the moment when I was behind it , so it hit the back of my bike. Fortunately, it was going too slowly, so I wasn't hurt.
When the driver saw me, he folded his hands, which I took as a sign that he was at least sorry for hitting me. I wasn't sure if my bike was okay, but in the end I was just glad that I hadn't been injured this time either. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I told the driver that everything was fine. With the strong desire to be more careful from now on.
Of course, I immediately took this to heart myself. How quickly can you miss something or someone, especially when ou there it's wet and dark? That's why I renewed my resolution—no matter how I'm moving around.
Life is simply too short, which is probably why we're all always in such a hurry. But sometimes it's better to pause for a moment, take a closer look, and just wait. Then maybe in the end everyone will arrive safely at their destination.
With that in mind, I wish you all a wonderful day. Take care of yourselves and also of those around you, and stay safe in your daily lives. And keep your eyes open in traffic!
