I am up in Colorado for a week and went out for an hour bike ride in the cool sunny thin air. Boulder is one of the most bike friendly towns in the country with many miles of bike lanes and paths. Motor vehicles are a much more aware of cyclists (they have to be because cyclists are everywhere), but even here there is danger.
I was going downhill in a bike lane on a relatively busy road in town today. I was travelling quite fast at 29-30 mph. In my short cycling life, the most worrisome situation on a busy road with a bike lane is when cars pass you and turn right. It would seem that cars always underestimate the pace of a cyclist.
This has happened to me quite a number of times on Nasa Rd 1 in Houston. Cars will go past and turn right just in front of me, forcing me to brake. This occured the most at Repsdorph, Kirby and in to the Arlan's parking lot. On occasion they have pissed me off so much that I saluted them. It never seems to happen on smaller or less busy roads. I guess when it is just me and a car or two on the road, the car is a bit more aware of cycling me.
The good news is I am very aware of this danger and am always suspicious of cars passing me on a busy road just before an intersection or a busy strip mall. I must admit to profiling drivers. Sure enough a car passed me as I was going 30 mph, I took a quick glance at the driver and made the immediate decision that the driver was an idiot based on my glance and I slowed down. Sure enough she turned right just in front of me without looking and had I not braked, I may not be writing this blog at the moment.
I profiled her. This is morally wrong. I will not profile any driver any more while I am cycling. Instead all drivers are idiots. They are the enemy whose only purpose for being on the roads is to take my life. When I am on a bike and you are in a car, you are evil, it does not matter who you are.
That is the attitude one must have when riding your bike on the roads with those smelly, nasty hunks of metal and their insane operators.
Other evil things on my ride today were a prarie dog and a squirrel on my path, probably plotting how to get under my wheel and bring me down.
1 comment:
To drivers you are either invisible or a target. I think your treating them all equally as total idiots is fair.
I wouldn't worry about the prairie dogs so much, but I am fairly certain that the Squirrel Mafia has put a hit out on the Carey family. They are in league with the Canadian Goose Mafia. Watch your back.
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