Tuesday, October 17, 2006

This is rich...

This has never happened to me before:

On my ride in this morning I came to a stop in the left turn lane at the intersection of Doyle and N. Main. Nothing new, I always take the lane there. I was earlier than I usually am, so traffic was much lighter than I'm used to. The traffic signal at that intersection has a sensor in the road so it knows when to change. If I'm sitting there by myself, I don't trigger the sensor and the light never changes. For this reason it's actually helpful to have a car pull in behind me to set the thing off. The light will change and we all go merrily on our way.

Today, as I waited for the light, a woman in a blue-ish BMW pulled up behind me and stopped. After 10 seconds or so, I heard her engine revving, so I looked back to see what was happening. Revving engines usually don't mean happy things when I'm on my bike. She was in the process of backing up the hill to gain some clearance so she could then speed past me in the right lane. Hurry, lady! The light, of course, changed halfway through this maneuver, allowing her to rip on through the intersection as I turned left. She was easily doing 35 by the time she had exited the intersection. I can almost hear her saying "Goddammit! Get your friggin' bike out of the road, idiot!" I hope she feels better this morning, sitting at work knowing she got there .7 seconds faster. I feel great this morning, knowing that I got here under my own power, thankful that I got to see the sunrise, and glad to have shared the road with such a 'considerate' driver... after all, she could have sped past me without changing lanes.

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