Night cyclers beware

I love seeing a girl on a bike. Women in general need to raise their activity levels; I often hear my friends excuse themselves from activities like walking, biking, and climbing stairs because they'll sweat, their shoes are too uncomfortable, they'll hit the gym later, and a number of other reasons to take the easy way out.

From what I understand, or at least according to the Telegraph and Eric Smithers, one of my classmates, biking is in.

However, I have some advice from the bike savvy girls out there. If you're not riding appropriately at night, I will hit you with my car. Like I almost did tonight, if it wasn't for a pedestrian who yelled at me to stop from where he was standing on the sidewalk.

I don't usually look to mow down bikers after a quick jaunt to my local Tarjay. Here's what she did wrong:

She was riding on the sidewalk on the wrong side of the road and didn't stop when she reached the area where the parking lot lets out to Bruce B. Downs (a very busy, multi-laned road).
I waited for another biker doing the same thing, looked to my right to see if any more people were biking along behind him, looked to my left to see if the pedestrian was going to walk across while I was at a stop, then inched forward only to hear the guy shout at me to stop.

Her bike didn't have any reflectors or lights.
If it did, I would have seen the reflectors or lights moving towards me from where she was illegally riding on the sidewalk.

She was wearing black.
Also not good for my visibility.

Like I said, I'm all for biking, especially hip-chick biking. But, please, if you need to venture out at night, obey traffic laws (like using bike lanes and traveling on the right side of the road), make sure your bike is as visible as possible, and wear light colors and reflector pads so people can see you. If you're going to drive by a busy side street or business, make sure to stop at all areas where there's heavy traffic coming or going.