ROAD RAGELESS
So yesterday, early evening, I was driving down New Hampshire on the way to the dog park, and this totally bizarre thing happens. It could easily have become a road rage nightmare, but the requisite rage was lacking. Instead it was more like a surreal road dream — minus talking penguins, circus clowns and weird sex with coworkers I dislike.
I get to a four-way stop, and when it's my turn to go, I go. But to my left I notice this guy on a bicycle who's making a left-turn signal with his hand. He appears to be slowing down, but he doesn't come to a stop. I think he's going to stop, but he doesn't. Meanwhile I am mostly through the intersection, and he keeps coming. He appears to see me. But he doesn't stop. It looks like he is going to run into me, even though we are making eye contact. Instead, he sharply pulls up and is suddenly riding right along beside me. He says, "I had the right-of-way. I don't have to stop."
"You do have to stop," I say.
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do. You had a stop sign."
"No, I don't," he says. "I'm on a bike, bitch." He is riding along all the while looking into my open window. He smiles.
"Bikes have to stop," I say. Then, registering that he called me a bitch, I add, "asshole." And smile back.
Meanwhile, Mabel has her whole torso out the window practically close enough to lick the guy's face. And he is just riding along like he's a family friend.
"Cute dog," he says, "but I didn't have to stop."
Oy. Just when I was starting to like him.
I scan my brain for something compelling to say, some nugget I picked up in Driver's Ed. Then it occurs to me that — wait! — I am in a CAR and there's no reason for me to be driving 10 mph and talking to this guy. So I shake my head in disbelief and step on the gas. He recedes into the past, like the boat in "The Great Gatsby." When I look in the rearview, he's waving.
Sheesh, I think, but wave back.
posted by kc @ 2:14 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Creepy. That's bike rage.
Unfortunately for that rude young man, I think his bike rage will eventually be flattened by road rage. It's like paper covers rock. Or in his agenda to educate drivers about the stop sign exemption for bicyclists, some inattentive driver will kill him.
(And to clarify, I mean his dangerously inaccurate idea about a stop sign exemption.)
Of course, I'm going to get killed sooner or later at the crosswalk in my attempt to educate drivers that I, the pedestrian, have the right of way on green. Being right is not worth it in this case.
I was walking out recently once with Tom and Jon, and Tom nixed Jon's plans to jaywalk. I wish I could quote him exactly, but it was something witty about how he isn't going to waste one of life's dodged bullets on jaywalking. Although I thik jaywalking might be safer for us than the crosswalks.
It is surprising how many bicyclists in this town — and here I mean your average bicyclist, not cyclist — are under the impression that traffic laws do not apply to them.
And there are a lot of drivers who don't seem to be aware when pedestrians have the right-of-way in crosswalks.
I was with my mom in her pickup on 11th Street last week, and she just blasted by that crosswalk by the courthouse. I had to alert her to the pedestrian who had the right-of-way. She just blithely said, "Oh, someone yelled at me for that one other time in Lawrence." Honestly, I think it's from living in Johnson County, where there really aren't pedestrians or crosswalks to speak of, or even a lot of four-way stops. It's all just red light, green light, merge. Hehe.
One time I walked out with Tom and he told me that walking to the crosswalk instead of just jaywalking was how he got his exercise for the day! I love that guy.
Bizarro. You should have reached out your window and shoved him into oncoming traffic. While smiling.
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