I'm from just outside of Washington DC in the USA. I actually happy to be from there. As far from there as I can get! I've been riding since I was 6 (never really stopped, even in my teens) and the drivers on the road were quite aggressive towards me at the time. I have since moved to the west coast and find the drivers to be much less antagonistic. As for what I do? Not much anymore as I'm 50mumble years old and disabled (PTSD). One thing I do however is ride my bike. At 50mumble years old, I'm still pulling metric centuries and hauling loads (not at the same time, so far). I'm learning German, and have two bikes:
Mondtänzerin (Moondancer), my road bike, is the first road bike I have built in over 20 years. She sports Campag (Campagnolo) Athena 11 speed gearing, Kamsin wheels, 30-year-old Campag Athena brakes (the old '89 Monoplaner ones), and a fair bit of shop brand "Taiwan knock-off" componentry where it counts less. Yes, this bike sports a white frame and bright silver componentry (with purple bits as well, when available). How did you guess?
Schattentänzerin (Shadow dancer) is my hybrid and work-horse. Sporting Shimano Deore LX 9 speed gearing, a total **** suspension fork (I'm looking for a replacement for that), Direct-pull brakes, home built wheels on Velocity hubs and Velocity Fusion rims laced 3x in front and 4x in the rear. at 36h these are all but indestructible! Most of this bike is TKO (Taiwan knock-off) stuff and I'm less happy with this ride (for now). Yes, she is a bit old (hey, so am I!), but still quite serviceable. I may rebuild her with Athena gearing in black if I can score it with a triple front. will likely have to build new wheels to support that. I'd be building her as a main touring rig, and would likely try to keep the Sherpa gearing as I will likely be hauling loads. Oh, sherpa gearing is my term: High end like any road bike, low end so low I can climb a hill that would scare a Sherpa. . .
she is carrying a 26, 38, 48 crankset, and 11-35 9-speed cassette. . . Can you say "wide range of gears"?