Ferrara and Bicycles

Many, many people ride bicycles here. The only helmets I have seen have been with a group of tourists sitting in a park eating their packed lunch. Their bikes were also better than anything I have seen. Little old ladies all dressed up wobble along, teenage youths hoon around and everyone inbetween. I cannot work out the rules. Sometimes people on a bike ring a bell which seems to say ‘ get out of my way’ but which way – left or right. Once I went the wrong way, into the path of the bicycle coming from behind. Usually they seem to go around pedestrians. It is bad form, I have discovered, for a pedestrian to decide suddenly to change course to look, e.g. at something in a window. This can cause a screech of brakes and an angry torrent of words. Twice I have smiled sweetly and pretended to be ignorant of everything. I now walk where I want and try and remember to look before changing directions. Crossing roads is a problem. I have to remember not only to concentrate on cars coming from a different direction, but bikes can come from any direction, not just the direction of the traffic. They obey no road rules. Occassionally some people on bikes will wait at pedestrian crossings but they are usually only parents with young children.