I was thinking about my fellow bloggers the other day. I decided there was no good reason I couldn't do a 12 mile round trip (distance to the grocery store). So I hauled the beast out of the garage and started pedaling.
Heather, I've got a whole new respect for your commitment to getting around without a car now that the temperatures here have started climbing. And
Green Bean, I thought about your beautiful sounding bike ride, wondering what I was missing, because mine wasn't that lovely at all. And I thought about
Charles, and vowed that triahlete was never going to be a word to describe me.
To be fair, I was probably a little jaded yesterday. I had only gone about 1/2 mile, when I heard a car approaching behind me. I could tell it was moving pretty quickly, which I thought was odd since there was a clearly red light not far ahead. Next thing I knew, this guy was flying by me, leaning on his horn, and coming really really close to me. Like he wanted to scare me into thinking he was going to hit me.
Well, it worked. He scare the daylights out of me. I usually avoid confrontation like the plague, but I was MAD. So I did what any angry, overheated woman would do. He had come to a screeching halt after nearly sideswiping me, so I started yelling at him. Really loud. More like screaming, I guess. I think it went something like this "EXCUSE ME. EXCUSE ME. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM? I SAID WHAT IS YOUR DAMN PROBLEM? HEY! HEY! YOU CAN'T JUST TRY TO RUN PEOPLE OVER BECAUSE THEY'RE IN YOUR WAY. JERK! HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING THAT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU NEED TO BEHAVE THAT WAY? HEY! JERK! HEY!"
Well you know what, he wouldn't even look at me, much less respond. After I tried so nicely to communicate and all that. I will admit that I have a bit of the proverbial Irish temper, and it was all I could do not to smash in the windows of his ugly ass fire engine red mini van, or let fly every curse word I know. And I know a lot. But I restrained myself - but I needed to retaliate in some way. I don't have a great ability to let things go right away. So I called the cops on him. I'm sure they didn't do anything - after all, a drunk lady smashing into my house with her gigantic SUV was a problem they "didn't have the manpower to deal with" so I'm sure this wasn't at the top of the pile, but a girl can dream.
At first I thought maybe I was over reacting, and although I will admit that my motivation was that I was really really angry, I actually believe this was an appropriate response. After all, a car is a deadly weapon if not handled responsibly. There's a reason that the term "vehicular manslaughter" exists, after all. Not only was this guy not driving in a manner safe for existing conditions (the condition being that I was also on the road), I consider what he did to be threatening with a deadly weapon.
Am I bit dramatic? Well, yes. But on the other hand, (mom skip to the next paragraph, please) there have been close to 200 bicyclists killed in my county in the past ten years. The problem is bad enough that there's going to be a
Town Hall Meeting to Discuss our Bicycle Safety Crisis.
So without further ado, drivers, please follow the new traffic laws I've made up. Or I'll give you a fake ticket. And yell at you too. Here they are:
1. If you park on the street, open your eyes before you open the car door. Sure, bikes don't go as fast as cars, but we also need more than a foot of stopping distance. If you open a door into a biker you create a very dangerous situation.
2. Be aware of the bicycle rules in your area. It doesn't matter if you don't want to share the road, if the laws say that bikes need to ride on the road, that's the situation. Just like it doesn't matter whether you want to stop at a red light. That's what the law says. Deal with it. Or get off the road.
3. Don't intentionally try to scare people on bikes. It's not funny and you might get somebody hurt.
4. If there are just a few parked cars ahead that a bike is passing, don't squeeze yourself into the mix too. Slow down and let him or her finish passing the parked cars and pass the bike when you have a wider space to do so. It won't make you any later than you already are.
5. If you see a pothole, or a piece of garbage, or other crap ahead in the road, be aware that a bike can't just blow through/over/past that stuff like a car. We need to go around it, so if you see a biker ahead, don't assume he or she is going to keep to an arrow-straight path.
6. Right turn on red requires you to come to a complete stop first. Do so. You can't be sure of what is around you unless you do. This is for the safety of pedestrians too. I've seen several nearly taken out because various drivers were in too much of a rush.
I was thinking a lot yesterday about our human resource infrastructure (I made that up - basically I mean public employees like police and fire fighters) and how it needs to be overhauled to make it safe for people to be more environmentally conscious. Our city always talks about various green issues, but the vulnerability of the non-motorized vehicles on our roadways is a serious problem that needs to be acknowledged and addressed. Pedestrians and cyclists should be fiercely protected, as should public transport passengers, especially when it's dark outside. That's called putting your money where your mouth is, and it's time we start doing it.
After I finished writing this post, but before I actually posted it, I saw on the news that today in my city a 12 year old girl was riding her bike home from the last day of school and was hit by an SUV and later died at the hospital. I will be keeping her and her family in my thoughts, and hope you will too. I don't know the details, so I'll try not to pass judgment on the driver, but what a tragedy - and how unneccessary.
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