Bikes are amazing.

Honestly, sometimes I just lie awake at night thanking Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun, of Germany, who invented the beginning stages of the bicycle (and yes: I had to look up his name; I am a fraud). Bicycles leave virtually no carbon footprint, they are a great form of exercise, and you don’t need a license to cruise the streets in some spandex on a hip two-wheeler. I also just recently learned how to ride a bike, and it is a blast — although the spandex? Not really for me.

My problem? Bicyclists.

I have a feeling this article will start some sort of #NotAllBicyclists rampage, and sure, there are many great and smart cyclists. However, I live in New York City, one of the rudest cities that has ever existed and that is filled to the brim with incredibly stupid and dangerous cyclists.

In New York City, there exists something called “Bike Laws” — a set of rules that are designed to keep cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians as safe as possible. For some reason, many bike riders must think that as easily as they glide over the streets, they can glide over the laws. The laws are as follows:

• Ride in the street, not on the sidewalks (unless the rider is age 12 or younger and the bicycle's wheels are less than 26 inches in diameter).
• Ride with traffic, not against it.
• Stop at red lights and stop signs. Obey all traffic signals, signs and pavement markings, and exercise care to avoid colliding with pedestrians, motor vehicles or other cyclists.
• Use marked bike lanes or paths when available, except when making turns or when it is unsafe to do so. If the road is too narrow for a bicycle and a car to travel safely side by side, you have the right to ride in the middle of the travel lane. Bicycling is permitted on all main and local streets throughout the City, even when no designated route exists.
• Use a white headlight and a red taillight, as well as a bell or horn and reflectors.

These are all from the NYC DOT website, so I can promise you I did not pull them from my armpits and put them into this article. I can also promise you that witnessing a cyclist follow these laws is a very rare sight. I have seen, more times than I can count, numerous bicyclists traveling the wrong way on one way streets, and I have almost been hit by a rider that was speeding down the sidewalk or kept riding through a red light while I was crossing the street so many times that I am wishing it happened just because I need to pay my college tuition and that would probably help big time — however, I digress.

I am completely aware that cars are more likely to injure or kill pedestrians than bicycles. Cars race down streets and run through lights and drivers make idiotic decisions that have sometimes fatal results. The issue is that I am not seeing cyclists getting stopped and fined for their offenses like I am seeing drivers getting stopped. Bike riders breaking laws is just as dangerous for the riders themselves as it is for pedestrians or drivers. I’m tired of "me flipping off a cyclist for riding through a red light" being their biggest punishment.

Honestly, all I want is to walk across the street without being nearly run over by a cyclist that decided getting to that cafe in Williamsburg was more important than my safety. Is that so much to ask?