Bike Anxiety Action Plan

[kimberly_a]

I've been working on my anxiety issues, and one of the particulars has been bicycling. As one of my first steps toward getting less anxious on my bike, I've put a lot of thought into what things make me anxious so that I could create a sort of "action plan," starting with biking that doesn't make me anxious and slowly working up through levels of increasing difficulty.

So here's my list of biking situations, ranked in order of how anxious they make me:

1. Familiar small streets (few cars) in dry daylight
2. Unfamiliar small streets in dry daylight
3. Small streets in rainy daylight
4. Well-lit small streets in dry darkness
5. Well-lit small streets in rainy darkness
6. Street with some cars in dry daylight
7. Street with some cars in dry, well-lit darkness
8. Street with some cars in rainy, well-lit darkness
9. Busy street in dry daylight
10. Busy street in dry, well-lit darkness

I don't even list "Busy street in rainy darkness," because it's beyond my range of what I'm willing to deal with. It takes my anxiety to 11, and I'm not willing to go there.

So I'm going to work on riding on the quiet streets in our neighborhood with the intention of working my way up to being okay biking in the dark, so that I can go with Shannon to get groceries. Right now, that's a little too anxiety provoking, but I can work up to it.