I got in my first early evening ride tonight with the extra hour of sunshine, on our first 70*F day. It felt wonderful! But unfortunately, all the idiots decided to come out too.
I came close to T-boning a van as I was crossing a busy street with the light on the "walk" signal. A van cuts directly in front of me, inches away. Fortunately I'm going slowly and I hit the brakes just in time. I catch a glimpse of a loose kid inside, unsecured by seat belts. It figures. I yell a few choice unprintable expletives in their windows as they speed off. I'm sure it was important for them to get to the next stop light ten seconds sooner.
Then I'm riding down the path toward home and a family of several adults and children are clustered in the center of the path. I slow down. They allow a toddler to wander out directly in front of my bike, about five feet away from a busy four-lane road filled with rush hour traffic. I yell "Watch your kid!" and I brake to a stop while they gather their wits about them and make up their minds whether they should bother to save their child from imminent death by cyclists or motorists.
Before my nerves were shot by those encounters, I got in a relaxing dozen miles in the lovely warm weather.
3 comments:
AGHH! I know exactly what you're talking about - people like this drive me crazy - no carseats/seatbelts, letting their kids play unsupervised in the front yards with no fence and a busy street just a few feet away...ugh, I could go on about it forever.
And it seems that there is a bounty out on cyclists...everyone I talk to seems to have had a recent near death experience!
Spring is here, wear protective gear :)
My riding partner and I came upon a group of 4 people 1 child walking a dog in the road. With no way around them, I yelled to Tony "Don't get the dog caught in your spokes this time!" They quickly moved!
Even the squirrels are conspiring. a buddy of mine was on a group ride and a squirrel decided to cross, not cross, cross the road. the squirrel got caught in the front wheel and was decapitated. my friend was launched off the front of the bike. and he was moving. pretty messed up. month later we're riding on the W&O trail heading to purcellville (sp) and my wife ran over a squirrel. it actually bounced the bike in the air. her defending of the birdfeeder w/ the kids paintball gun probably led to the bad karma.
see ya @ eagleman. chris.
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