{"id":4658,"date":"2010-11-06T16:07:35","date_gmt":"2010-11-06T23:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4658"},"modified":"2010-11-06T16:07:35","modified_gmt":"2010-11-06T23:07:35","slug":"a-good-ride-spoiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=4658","title":{"rendered":"A Good Ride Spoiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

We went for a bicycle ride this morning with other members of our Trail Trash riding group.\u00a0 Along the way I had an unpleasant encounter with a motorist.\u00a0 Did it really spoil the ride?\u00a0 No, but it was shocking to me to realize how much some folks hate bicyclists.<\/p>\n

We were riding south toward the University of Arizona campus on Mountain Avenue, probably the most bicycle-friendly street in Tucson.\u00a0 It’s lightly traveled, mostly by university students and faculty (and most of them on bicycles), with a 25 mph speed limit.\u00a0 It has well-maintained bike lanes on both sides, wide enough to ride two abreast, and curb-mounted “press to cross” buttons for bicyclists at every stoplight.\u00a0 One feels safe on such a street, but I’m here to tell you one should never let one’s guard down.<\/p>\n

I was overtaking a slower rider who was not part of our group, a right Fred<\/a> obliviously weaving left and right, hogging the entire bike lane.\u00a0 I had to move left to the white line separating the bike lane from the car lane to get by.\u00a0 As I pulled back into the bike lane in front of the weaver, I heard a car coming from behind, obviously accelerating hard.\u00a0 The driver started honking as he came abreast of me — this two full seconds after I’d passed the Fred, which meant he was nowhere close to me when I actually did the passing — making it clear he was going out of his way to be an asshole.\u00a0 As he sped past I couldn’t help uttering a hearty Fuck you!<\/p>\n

He screeched to a stop and through his open passenger window yelled What the fuck did you say to me?\u00a0 I replied, sweetly, Fuck you!\u00a0 He then paced me for a block, yelling at me to stay off his fucking street, which was for fucking cars, not fucking bicycles.\u00a0 I exchanged a few more Fuck yous with him, and then he started speeding ahead, slamming on his brakes, yelling some more, speeding ahead, etc, finally swerving into the bicycle lane to cut me off and deliver a final threat, namely, to punch my fat fucking face in.\u00a0 I decided it was a fine day to die and responded with another Fuck you!\u00a0 Inexplicably, he sped off, never once having left the comfort of his car.\u00a0 In case he changed his mind, I noted the license plate number as he roared off down Mountain.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later, when we reached our midway coffee stop on 4th Avenue, my daughter Polly — who was riding one length behind me — told me the weaver had veered hard to the left as she started to pass, forcing her slightly into the car lane, and she had thought the motorist was honking at her, not me.\u00a0 I called the cops, reporting the guy and giving them his license plate number, but I fear the exercise was worth approximately nothing (is there something less than nothing?) since they didn’t take my name or phone number.\u00a0 This totally fits, by the way, with every report I’ve ever heard about Tucson law enforcement’s lack of interest in car\/bicycle accidents and incidents, of which there are . . . a lot.\u00a0 Tucson a bicycle-friendly mecca?\u00a0 Don’t believe everything you hear.<\/p>\n

You know what was interesting?\u00a0 The oblivitron who was zig-zagging in the bicycle lane, the Fred who set the stage for all that ensued?\u00a0 He never passed me during my altercation with the motorist, even though I had just passed him.\u00a0 He must have ducked into an alleyway when he saw trouble ahead.\u00a0 The chickenshit.<\/p>\n

I wonder how close the asshole in the car came to actually ramming me?\u00a0 Certainly I should have known to keep my mouth shut when he passed me the first time, but sometimes my mouth has a mind of its own.\u00a0 Especially when it knows it’s in the right.<\/p>\n

What if there had been no bike lane at all, and I had been sharing a lane with Mr. Enraged Motorist?\u00a0 Most Tucson streets lack bike lanes, and though we try to avoid such streets it’s not always possible.\u00a0 I’ve had drivers swerve to within inches of me on streets like that, going out of their way — like the guy today — to make the point that the road belongs to them, not to the likes of me.<\/p>\n

What if the Fred who was weaving all over the bike lane had suddenly veered in front of the guy?\u00a0 Would our hostile motorist have been in the right to run the Fred down?\u00a0 No, of course not, and by the cut of his jib, I suspect he would have pulled a hit and run.\u00a0 I also suspect he votes Republican.<\/p>\n

My god, I’m probably lucky to be alive!\u00a0 Maybe I’d better not wear my Obama\/Biden 2008 jersey next time I ride!\u00a0 Or maybe I’ll just ride my other bike . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"
Next time, asshole . . .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We went for a bicycle ride this morning with other members of our Trail Trash riding group.\u00a0 Along the way I had an unpleasant encounter with a motorist.\u00a0 Did it really spoil the ride?\u00a0 No, but it was shocking to me to realize how much some folks hate bicyclists. We were riding south toward the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bicycling","category-personal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4658"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4672,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4658\/revisions\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}