One of my favorite activities I like to do in my free time is biking. On many days after school, my friend and I would bike down this very steep mile long hill to the park, and then painfully drag ourselves back up. Now that it’s summer, biking to the nearby Dunkin Donuts for iced coffee has become a daily routine. If I’m feeling impatient to walk, the bike always serves as a handy means of transportation to my friends’ house or to Rite Aid. But you may ask, how do I even bike if I can’t see where I’m going?

Here’s a few general tips I follow for my own safety when biking:

1. Make sure you know the area you are biking in. Personally, I only bike in areas I am very familiar with. When I bike alone, I am usually always in my neighborhood, so I know I will not get lost. Especially because I can’t see street signs, it is important for me to know the area I am biking around inside and out: except for this one time (actually this year)I was at a sleep away program at The College of NJ, and decided to go on a bike around campus on only the second morning. I ended up peddling right off campus. Yeah, I don’t suggest you do that, because I was out baking in the sun for hour and missed breakfast. Well, there’s still always Google Maps too, but I can’t bike with one hand.
2. Know yourself and your eye condition enough to decide when you should and shouldn’t bike. For me, I am almost completely blind once the sun goes down, as I literally can’t see ANYTHING in the dark. I also know that when the sun is shining too brightly, and if I take a path surrounded by many trees, I will not be able to distinguish grass from pavement because the patterns of shade and light dominate my field of vision. Hence, I try to always bike before 8 PM and take a different path with less trees if the sun is too bright.
3. Be ready to press the breaks in a split second. I literally have my hands resting on the breaks when I bike, especially when I am flying downhill. When I am going fast, there is a huge possibility, that I will encounter a person or something in my path that will only cross my field of vision when they are right in front of me. Lucky enough for me, I haven’t gotten into a bike accident yet, but there have been several incidents where people have had to jump out of my way as I came barreling down a hill because I didn’t have my hands resting on the breaks and failed to see them in time to react. Not very polite.
4. Always pay extra attention to your surroundings. Most people go on a bike ride very chill and relaxed, but as a legally blind, you always be very alert. Especially when biking down a hill, I am straining to detect any noises to signal nearby people and concentrating only on staying on the path ahead. Once I was riding smoothly down a hill, debating in my head which coffee flavor I would get when before I know it, I’ve veered off onto the grass and am headed for a collision with a giant tree. I swerved out of the way in time to avoid a fatal injury, but the experience did make me realize the importance of focusing my eyes on where I’m going.
5. Always wear a helmet. Nuff said.

I hope you found some of these tips useful or at least somewhat entertaining. I wanted to express that just because you are blind or visually impaired, it doesn’t mean you have to give up the activities that you love. There’s always ways around your eye condition, you just need to be patient and willing to be flexible. And of course, always look on the positive side. Although I can’t join my friends for a midnight bike around town, I am still lucky enough to ride up and down the hills in the daytime, even if I do need to pay more attention and use my breaks more than other people do. Don’t let your eye condition prevent you from enjoying life and doing what you love. 🙂