Inconsideration
Boy am I irritated!
Over the last few years, I've sporadically ridden my bike to work in preference to driving. I've had patches where I've ridden really consistently, but often laziness or other pressures set in, and a few months or a year can go by without riding at all. However, in the last month or so I (and E) have managed to ride to work about 3 days per week. Now that's hardly admirable given the extended periods of inactivity, but what happened on our ride today was bloody infuriating.
3 separate events marred the tips to and from work.
The city I live in has reasonable, and improving, bike lanes, however there's a patch of road not far from work where the bike lane just ends. This leaves any cyclist dangerously close to those cars whose driver's are too lazy to change lanes to give the cyclist some space. Anyway, today I decided that I'd ride beside E, so that between us we took up a whole lane. Most cars moved across, although some not quite far enough. But then this huge truck blasted past us, airhorn blaring, as if we'd just pulled out infront of him, or cut him off.
The second event was on the way home. I was riding on my own, about 500m from E's work, when some yobbos in a car yelled something out the window about getting off the road. Not an uncommon occurrence in isolation.
But then the last thing. In our city we have road manoeuvres called hook turns where a car can turn right from the left lane by waiting until the lights on the road you are turning into go green (keep in mind we drive on the left). They exist to avoid cars blocking up intersections where trams pass through but bikes can do hook turns at any intersection. Anyway, we were about to do a hook turn, across a busy intersection, but we ended up infront of someone who was planning to turn left off the street we were turning into. He was sitting right on top of the space which is supposed to be left for cyclists waiting to enter the intersection (marked by a large bike painted on the road), so we pulled up infront of him. Anyway, as the lights went green and we went on our way, he hurled some abuse out of the window of his vehicle; a bloody 4WD no less.
So, where do these people get off. Sure bicycles are a little bit slow. Sure they get in the way sometimes. But really, these irrational, inconsiderate people should be tripping over themselves to accomodate people on bikes. For starters, every bike being ridden means one less car clogging up the road. At the very least, this reduces traffic congestion for all those people who drive. But more importantly, its one less fossil fuel burning engine polluting the atmosphere. Now I can hardly get on a high horse here, because as I've said, I've done my fair share of driving, but I just wish these people who seem to have some vendetta against bikes could stop and think for a second.
No doubt one day, if they don't already, these people are going to have kids, grandkids, etc., who are going to have to grow up somewhere. If the slight inconvenience caused by having to accomodate a cyclist results in the world being a slightly healthier place, then surely that slight inconvenience is a small price to pay.
But, unfortunately, I don't think that even crosses the minds of these impatient, abusive motorists, which probably goes a long way to explaining why things in general are so screwed up.
Over the last few years, I've sporadically ridden my bike to work in preference to driving. I've had patches where I've ridden really consistently, but often laziness or other pressures set in, and a few months or a year can go by without riding at all. However, in the last month or so I (and E) have managed to ride to work about 3 days per week. Now that's hardly admirable given the extended periods of inactivity, but what happened on our ride today was bloody infuriating.
3 separate events marred the tips to and from work.
The city I live in has reasonable, and improving, bike lanes, however there's a patch of road not far from work where the bike lane just ends. This leaves any cyclist dangerously close to those cars whose driver's are too lazy to change lanes to give the cyclist some space. Anyway, today I decided that I'd ride beside E, so that between us we took up a whole lane. Most cars moved across, although some not quite far enough. But then this huge truck blasted past us, airhorn blaring, as if we'd just pulled out infront of him, or cut him off.
The second event was on the way home. I was riding on my own, about 500m from E's work, when some yobbos in a car yelled something out the window about getting off the road. Not an uncommon occurrence in isolation.
But then the last thing. In our city we have road manoeuvres called hook turns where a car can turn right from the left lane by waiting until the lights on the road you are turning into go green (keep in mind we drive on the left). They exist to avoid cars blocking up intersections where trams pass through but bikes can do hook turns at any intersection. Anyway, we were about to do a hook turn, across a busy intersection, but we ended up infront of someone who was planning to turn left off the street we were turning into. He was sitting right on top of the space which is supposed to be left for cyclists waiting to enter the intersection (marked by a large bike painted on the road), so we pulled up infront of him. Anyway, as the lights went green and we went on our way, he hurled some abuse out of the window of his vehicle; a bloody 4WD no less.
So, where do these people get off. Sure bicycles are a little bit slow. Sure they get in the way sometimes. But really, these irrational, inconsiderate people should be tripping over themselves to accomodate people on bikes. For starters, every bike being ridden means one less car clogging up the road. At the very least, this reduces traffic congestion for all those people who drive. But more importantly, its one less fossil fuel burning engine polluting the atmosphere. Now I can hardly get on a high horse here, because as I've said, I've done my fair share of driving, but I just wish these people who seem to have some vendetta against bikes could stop and think for a second.
No doubt one day, if they don't already, these people are going to have kids, grandkids, etc., who are going to have to grow up somewhere. If the slight inconvenience caused by having to accomodate a cyclist results in the world being a slightly healthier place, then surely that slight inconvenience is a small price to pay.
But, unfortunately, I don't think that even crosses the minds of these impatient, abusive motorists, which probably goes a long way to explaining why things in general are so screwed up.
posted by oscillatory at 10:38 pm
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