We had our public safety director in for a meeting yesterday to review the college's "all hazards emergency operations plan." Mostly we talked about college stuff but we also talked a bit about all that stuff about not "walking like a victim." I think people still tend to think "but I"m not *thinking* like a victim" ... but that doesn't mean that you're not presenting the opportunity to become one...
... anyway... I realized as he described how he proceeds in public that an awful lot of those same "body language" things are exactly what I do on the bicycle... basically "be very very PRESENT THANK YOU!!" and interactive with the humans. WHen he added that an effect of this is that people are very frequently greeting him (because that automatic interact-with-you pattern invites it) I realized, "that's what's going on with the bicycle, too!" It's not just being mildly infamous (with my weird bike and occasional airtime for cycling stuff). I realized that yup, the habit has carried over into the way I walk down the hall, too... even if I'm not consciously looking people in the eye, I've just got a more interactive facial expression. In previous jobs, the assorted staff folks I'd pass here and there didn't all greet me, etc... I thought it was the climate here but now I realize that it's probably because I'm behaving differently (and it's why people confuse me for an extravert when I'm really a Very Shy Person who just Walks Around With a Grin.)

Which is a convoluted way of saying that riding safely makes me safer 24-7.