What it means to ride a bicycle to work

I started serious riding when I had just finished my advanced level exams and the bike commonly known as a changer came was a gift from mum upon finishing my secondary school.
But for me the one hundred sixty thousand shillings bike meant more than just a ride it meant moving around the city and also while I searched for any vacation job opportunity.
And just as they say that where there is a will there is a way, soon I landed a job of a bus conductor and so I could wake up early in the morning like at six, jump on my changer and ride all the way from Nansana to Jinja stage in the old taxi park.
Waking up early was never a problem but the stingy morning breeze and also some times when it rained I would find my boss either gone or filled the bus with passengers and so I would not get the pay for calling for passengers and he would quarrel.
Some days like on weekends I would stay at home another opportunity to ride around town to places like Kibuye, Kansanga, Kasubi, Mpererwe to visit friends and relative and also going to church.
For anyone riding a bicycle will agree with me that that two wheel drive save a lot of transport and beats traffic jam better than a bodaboda.
I remember when taxi drivers had a sit down strike I saw a lot of people walking to and from work while I and other colleagues were. That particular day we had a meeting with certain no nonsense lecturer and many students missed out for they came late and the policy was she comes you, you do not enter.
Apart from saving transport and beating traffic jam and also being cheap to maintain I have discovered yet another benefit about riding to work daily. It offers a daily dose of exercise which keeps me healthy.
And I guess it because of such benefits that many people especially students are buying these changer bicycles a lot today than ever before. A lot of students at campus and high school today have opted for bicycles mainly for the purposes of saving.
Ridding to work also comes with challenges and costs especially on rainy days. It means that you must check your wardrobe in relation to the wheather forecast or else you will curse the day as the bike has pelted you with mud at the back. Apart from that even other road users like taxi drivers and bodaboda men think that being on a bicycle you don’t own even a single inch on the road.
They try all means possible to push you off the road. For instance mid this year I was ridding from kamwokya going back to Nansana. I decided to pass by kubbiri then join the northern bypass through Bwaise. There was heavy traffic jam and I dicided to go in the middle of the lanes and there was this bodaboda guy who came following and seemingly in a hurry as he kept on hooting and shouting that I give him way.
Eventually he took over I trailed at a high speed and immediately after joining Bombo road and before going through the fly over a pajero hit the pavement up the fly over and came spinning in the air from up the fly over coming down, only to hit a taxi full of people down in the lane and the bodaboda man and his passenger. Eight people died on spot, that evening I learnt to give way especially when someone seems to be in a hurry. Had I refused to give way I would be the one hit by the flying pajero.
On other incident, I was hit by a speeding car at around 9pm at Kampala northern bypass as I hurried back home from school but I was not so much injured.
Some workmates also sometimes do not take you serious when they get to know that you ride to work. I mean they give you that look which says a million sentences in a second.