Well, Friday started off on a bad note. Non-stop hard hard rain. Pour, pour, pour, and I debated this morning whether to actually don my rain gear to bike to work. I ultimately did, feeling confident and rather giddy at my tomboyishness to brave the forces of nature.
Biking along a major street (in the bike lane), a car coming out of an alleyway noses out in front of me, blocking the bike lane completely and sticking its head out past the lane into the actual roadway. The driver first looked away from me, for traffic oncoming from the other side of the road. Then he turned and looked straight at me. I saw him hesitate for a second, then decide to let up on his brakes, preparing to pull out in front of me.
At first, I hit my bike brakes because obviously I don't want to run into his car. Then in a moment of boldness, I am pissed off. Why should I avoid him?? He is the one turning into my path. I totally have the right of way going straight, and he should not be turning to cut me off just because I am a bike. I have every right to be on the road, and he needs to respect that. So I let up my brakes, pedal, and swerve around the front of his car.
As I am going by him, he gestures madly at me. I throw up my hands with a "What the fuck" face, and keep riding.
He turns, pulls up next to my bike, and rolls down his windows, starking mad. Before he has a chance to speak, I yell, still pedaling, "Dude, I have the right of way. I was going straight."
He counters with something about the fact that he "was stopped". I didn't catch everything he said, and what I caught made no sense at all. What? Because he's stopped, he has the right of way? I clearly had the right of way, going straight on my road. He was coming out of an alleyway, so it wasn't an intersection with rules for who goes first. He clearly did not have the right of way, wanting to turn on to my road. He needs to yield to traffic on the road, and that includes bike traffic traveling in the bike lane.
At this point, we had come to a red light. It was my intersection, so I ignored whatever else argument he was making, made a right turn to continue on my way to work.
The exchange made me so mad. I wanted to exact some kind of vigilante justice. I wanted to beat some sense into the guy: he would never have even thought to pull out in front of a car, and similarly, he has no right to pull out in front of me even if I am "just a bike".
And thus continues the saga of motorists & bikers in a supposedly bike-friendly city.
It's mid-afternoon now, and actually Friday's not turned out so bad. It is still gross out, raining nonstop all day. But a labmate I don't always get along with just went out of her way to tell me about an event happening tonight that I might be interested in. I did already know about it (and was debating going), but her genuineness inspired me to pretend that I didn't know and to show equally genuine appreciation that she would think to pass the information along.
4 comments:
I know that debate when I'm on the bike myself. It's always difficult because, even when the law is on your side, physics aren't: a few dozen pounds of rider and bike just can't beat a couple thousand of metal and plastic.
Next time? As you ride around the front of him, kick his grill with your foot...
I've often ridden (particularly in the city) with a chain lock wrapped around my left wrist. The theory is that if a driver is close enough for me to "tap" them with the head of the lock, the consequences are probably their fault. (In my smaller town, I was tempted to use it to rap the window of a guy using the bike lane as a travel lane the other day.)
In the end, though, I don't. I need to shed the anger some other way, though.
That is what scares me about riding my bike as a form or transportation rather than just as a fun thing on trails and stuff. I've seen motorcycle/car wars during peak traffic times and mostly it ends with the cyclist kicking the car door or grill or something. Drivers can be such road hog aggressive asses sometimes.
I can relate. I only wish I lived in a "bike-friendly" place. While riding in the bike lane here, I have been honked at by the city bus--for no reason. A--holes in cars pulling out in front of me when I have the right of way is a common occurrence. Be safe!
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