Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Me v. Irate Driver #1

I’ve begun to bicycle to downtown to ride the bus home. This offers several advantages over catching at work.

1. The downtown departure time is fixed so it’s easier to catch.
2. I can leave work a few minutes later.
3. I don’t have to sit outside work at a bus stop and wait. Sitting and waiting at on street bus stops continue to make me overly self-conscious, especially near my place of employment.

Monday I rolled down the middle of the lane on a narrow central downtown street in a 15mph zone as I was approaching a red light. The driver of a tan Jeep Cherokee (1MA 689) that was behind me demonstrated their willingness to risk my life, their property, and their disregard for the law, by crossing a double yellow line to zip around me and get to the red light first.

Coincidentally this was the same red light that riding buddy Chad and I had a confrontation with a driver this spring. That involved actual property damage to the vehicle, as well as a ticket to the driver for passing in an intersection.

I was early to catch my bus so I followed the Jeep and waited behind it at the next red light, and then I waited behind it at the next red light before we went our separate ways.

On a positive note, I’m pleasantly surprised that it took so long before having a bad experience with a driver.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crumbs, if that rates as a bad experience with a driver, I'm moving to America. You're not a real cyclist until you've been shot at by a driver IME.

I agree with you about the pyschological problem with waiting at bus stops. I hate it. The only (slight) cure I've found is to make sure I have something to tinker with while I wait; a web enabled mobile phone being my preferred option.

Anonymous said...

...I prefer a piece of yarn and playing cats craddle. Or counting to 100 and then recounting to make sure i got them all.