Hot rider encourages Jamaicans to cycle and save

As gas prices keep rising, and families continue to find it harder to make ends meet, Shellysha McCarthy-Grandison's decision to cycle to work has ensured that she has one less thing to worry about.

Unlike most commuters, McCarthy-Grandison is not forced to dig deep into her pocket for more cash to fill up at the gas station, and neither does she has to contend with cabbies who hike their fares with little regard to the stipulations as outlined by the regulators. She rides in her heels to work on her bicycle daily, though she has to dodge potholes and face bad drivers along the way.

"All it cost me to get to work is energy and sweat, that is all," a smiling McCarthy-Grandison told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"I don't need to complain about gas at all. Unno nuh see mi bicycle? Is my Honda dat."

It takes McCarthy-Grandison little more than half an hour from her Patrick City home to work, which is off Hagley Park Road in Kingston. She noted that hopping on to a bicycle and riding to work, especially travelling along busy thoroughfares, requires some amount of bravery. Nonetheless, she is hoping to see other persons follow her lead by ditching automobiles and using pedal cycles as their main mode of transportation.

"I would encourage persons to ride a bicycle once they have the ability to do so. It will save you a lot of money," she said. "I will really only ride in a car if I am going to the country," McCarthy-Grandison said, while conceding that holding one's own on the road is not very easy.

"Year before last, I received a knee injury as I was hit from my bicycle by a bearer, but that did not leave me with any second guesses. In fact, it motivated me to continue riding," she said.

Yet she remains committed to cycling.

" I will never stop riding my bike because it is good exercise and it keeps me in shape. This 's the only exercise that I am partaking in," she said.

When she was first featured in this newspaper in October 2019, McCarthy-Grandison disclosed that she was attracting thousands of gazing eyes, and was getting an oversupply of sweet talk and marriage proposals. At that time, Grandison was not attached to her name. That change came after a lucky suitor won her heart and got her hands in marriage last June.

"I am married, I am taken so there is no other man who stands a chance. I am not married to any of the men who wanted to propose to me though," she said.