I was riding my bike home from the office on a Sunday. The downtown San Francisco traffic was eerily quiet. I picked up speed on a slight downhill section of my standard route from the Financial District to the Marina, when I was suddenly pitched off my bike and into the street.

I had a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious.  The panicked driver, who had opened his door into me as I rode by, apologized and implored if I was okay, but I couldn’t focus on anything he said because I was laughing so hard.

It is strangely hilarious that I had just completed more than 1,000 miles on an unassisted bike ride from Beijing to Shanghai without a single scrape, but couldn’t last more than 48 hours back on US soil before getting into some kind of accident.

The goal of my trek was to gain a firsthand, in-depth understanding of the bicycle’s role in Chinese life, and to investigate how the cycling culture and bike infrastructure can be integrated into efficient and sustainable transportation design.

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