Earlier this week, around dusk, a parking motorist flung his door open at
the very second I passed his car. I take care to ride outside the door
zone, but he had a two-door with long doors and had parked none to close
to the curb, so he really caught my attention (although not my
handlebars). This was a street with a well marked bike lane, so he had
extra reason to be aware of cyclists. I circled back to explain to him,
quite politely, how dangerous that was, and I received a mildly contrite
SMIDSY response. As he walked on, I didn't feel I had sufficiently
impressed on him that a lot of inexperienced cyclists ride closer to the
doors than I do, and I wanted him to take away from this encounter, as I
did, a feeling of disaster narrowly averted and a resolution to be more
careful. So I turned around to catch up to him and continue the
discussion, only to see him take off on a run, in street shoes with his
necktie flying, and then duck into a restaurant.
Yesterday, coming home late from work, I hit a red light and used the stop
for a quick cell phone call to say I was on my way. The light turned green
as I stuck the phone in my pocket and I don't believe I delayed anyone one
bit. In any event, I was again in the bike lane on a street with one bike
lane and one general traffic lane each way, so I really couldn't have
inconvenienced anyone but another cyclist. However, the car to my left was
waiting on opposing traffic before turning left, and the cab behind him
evidently wanted to use the bike lane to scoot around it, so the driver
felt aggrieved and as he passed me he honked, yelled, and gave me the
finger. At the first stop sign I pulled up next to him and asked him,
"Hey, what's your problem?" (using just those words and no others). The
cabby, a man about my age who seemed way to old to get so excited by
something like this, just repeated his gesture vigorously and said over
and over something that I lip-read as "[censored] you!" Hoping to continue the
conversation, I tried to catch up with him at the next stop sign, where he
was about fourth in line. Instead, he swerved into the oncoming lane,
passed the cars ahead of him, and then, encountering traffic about to
enter the intersection from the opposite direction, made a sudden,
unsignaled turn down the little side street.
I guess I've become such a crashing bore on the subject of transportation
cycling that people now run when they see me coming.
--
Paul Turner