Owning a bike in South Beach

[rtoledo71]

On my recent apartment hunting trip, I paid closer attention to the bike scene in South Beach.

These are my quick observations:

1. People ride quite a bit on South Beach. I saw a woman in a very nice dress with a US Postal box riding to the post office. It was nice to see this as you see a lot of this in Boston.

2. No one wears a helmet. It was quite shocking to see this. Not one single person I saw on a bike was wearing one. True, it was quite hot when I was there (90+ degrees) but this has never stopped me from wearing helmet. It's possible I'll be the only person on South Beach who will be wearing one.

3. People do not properly lock their bikes. This might partially explain the high theft rate. Granted, if a thief wants your bike, they'll take it, but why make it easier? My impression is that people are kind of lazy when it comes to locking their bikes.

4. The roads are not as bad as people say they are. While I had a very limited exposure to the roads on this trip, they are not that bad. It's possible my opinion will change once I start riding there, but my first impression wasn't bad.

5. The drivers are bad, but nothing worse than what I see here in Boston. However, this was South Beach so I can't say anything about the rest of Miami. If I ever venture off SoBe on my bike, I'll give an update. The realtor who helped me find my apartment was a pretty bad driver. She drove me around some and she got distracted very easily. She blamed everyone but herself for any minor incidents.

That's it for now.

[Miami Beach Bum]

I just checked out the DECOBIKE site and it says that registration begins 8/15 and the program launches 9/15. Great news!

[Jess]

Yes, no one wears a helmet here. No one does on scooters or motorbikes too. It's all part of the FL carefree attitude, there is not even a law to enforce it.

[Matt Meltzer]

I will say that serious riders wear helmets. Like the people you see training on the Rickenbakcer and whatnot, ALL in helmets.

The big problem insofar as drivers and cyclists is the non-use of turn signals. People will cut across the bike lane into a parking lot without signaling. You HAVE to watch the tires of every car in front of you to see if they are about to turn. That's really the only way to know. What sucks about that is you can never get up good speed anywhere where there's cars around. But watching turn signals is pointless and will probably get you injured or killed. You gotta watch the wheels.

[rtoledo71]

Jess: In Boston, there is only a helmet law for motorcycles and scooters. Bikes are by choice, but a fair amount of people wear them here. Some have some really stylish ones.

Matt: I figured as much. I guess no one on South Beach is a serious rider. I agree with not looking at turn signals. I don't even do it here. It's a waste of time and will always lead to some kind of accident and then an argument, if you can get up that is.