I have a confession to make, though it will make an enemy of my co-blogger: I hate sharing the road with bikers.
I see why I must share the road with them. I see that it is the law. I agree with it. I plan on buying a bike and making it my transportation. I'm on board in principle.
But say I'm traveling uphill behind a biker on a narrow road:
1) Oh my GOD, I don't have the patience for it. Every human alive hates being stuck behind old people - probably other old people too. Same deal here, though I know people who will tell me in this situation that I need to learn patience and respect. Whatever, my blood pressure sky rockets when I have to go 15 mph in a 35 zone, and that's not going to change.
2) I feel like I'm on the brink of vehicular manslaughter if I turn 1 degree to the side. I want this man in his spandex beside me to live a full, long life, but if I hit a pothole then nick his back tire it's over. The situation puts me on edge and I find myself getting mad at the biker. I talk myself down but I can't help it. When I do finally pass him I gun the engine because I don't know how much time I'll have.
Then, when I'm at the light and I see a him creeping up in my rear view mirror, the whole time I'm thinking "go, go, go!!! Don't let him catch up!" Then if there's a little bit of stop and go for a while, then it's: "he's in my blind spot, oh wait, no he isn't - oh wait, he - oh, he's next to me, oh, blind spot...DAMN BIKERS!!!"
I'm sorry, Aak, if this post offends you. But, hey, if you can't speak from your heart in your own blog where can you? ;)
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2 comments:
I agree completely. In fact, I don't think you went far enough in your complaints. I despise sharing the road with bikers.
And I say this as a biker. I drive more often than I ride my bike, but I do own a bike that I ride fairly often both for exercise and transportation, but I go out of my way to take bike paths whenever possible (thank you, city of Minneapolis!) and when not, I respect the rules of the road. Why do bikers think they can run red lights, turn left from the right hand lane, go the wrong way down one-way streets, etc?
Because they're assholes, that's why.
Conversely, when I'm on my bike, I fucking hate cars that honk at me, cut me off, and generally don't understand that I have a right to be on the road as well.
So... I really don't know how to feel.
There's a guy I work with who sold his car and bought a bike about a year ago. He says that his lifestyle has improved dramatically as he went from fat to in shape just by commuting. That's a beautiful thing.
When I read Aak's story du jour about how he came inches from death because of some a-hole driver, the whole time I'm on board with him.
Just get them away from me!
I hate ambivalence.
I liken this to when you're a kid and you start half-crossing the road when a car is coming. The driver flies into a rage, and you're like "what, I'm clearly inches from your car, lady. Relax." Now if some damn kid does that I'm enraged. It seems sometimes that bikers don't realize what it's like from our perspective.
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