I needed a 24 hour window of time to take in what happened to me yesterday before I could actually write about it. I needed to get out on the road this morning, roll along with the morning traffic and experience a pleasant ride to work.
During the 10+ mile ride in to work I come across several intersections until I hit a long stretch outside of town (this is where the headwind always greets me). My town is trying very hard to promote the "Share the Road" theme that many towns across our country are trying, hoping to get cyclists and motorists to co-exist together on our busy roads.
But the other day, even my humble triangle couldn't handle the situation that transpired at one of the busy intersections I pass through. Most of the intersections that I pass through have a separate lane for going straight through an intersection and then a separate turning lane for a right turn. But there is one intersection that has one lane for both. I always like it when I get behind a car that needs to go straight and thus has to wait for the light to turn green before moving forward - I figure that if the car is waiting, it looks normal for me to be behind the car waiting also to go straight.
This time I was the first vehicle waiting at the red light wanting to go straight through the intersection and the car behind me couldn't understand why I wouldn't get out of his way. It became a very uncomfortable situation as I ignored his constant horn blowing while he inched his car bumper within inches of my back tire as if trying to push me out of the way. Then he yelled out of his window "It's share the Road you idiot". When I simply pointed to the traffic sign that indicated the lane was for both going straight or turning right his rage set in and the obscenities that flowed from his mouth along with the hand signals (you can let your imagination figure that out) started to make me feel extremely vulnerable.
Fortunately the light turned green and he turned right. As I headed down the road I did notice that all the other motorists that had seen what happened carefully went by me as if to say "hey, we saw what happened". It took the rest of the ride to work to gather myself - it was upsetting!
I was thinking of that guy today and wondering what issues he's dealing with or not dealing with. Did he lose a job, did his wife leave him, was he terribly hurt in his life?
Oh well . . . I can't let it stop me since this is how I get to work. I believe in Share the Road - and I do my best to follow the rules of the road - but for some folks, no matter what you say or how you promote it, or how you ride the roads - they just have a hard time accepting that a bicycle is a viable means of transportation.
So as Red Green says - just remember I'm pullin' for ya - we're all in this together.
Ride safe out there!
Kath