He crept forward to the limit
line of the three-way stop like he was approaching the edge of the Grand Canyon
to look down but was afraid the ledge would give way. There was nobody at or
approaching the cross street to the left and the oncoming traffic could only
turn right or come straight through. I was inching along trying to get to the
stop without putting either foot down to the pavement. He finally got to the
stop and took an exaggerated look left and then right to where there was no
street; I was foiled and had to put down my foot or lose the Victory Cross
Country. He checked his rear-view mirror and met my eyes; the smirk that showed
at the corner of his eyes belied his faux-safety approach almost as much as his
running the stop sign up the street to cut me off so close that I had to go
hard to the brakes. This guy was messing with me (to use the politically
correct term). I hadn’t honked, made any overt gestures at him, or yelled; I
was on my best rider-behavior and yet he felt compelled to mess with me and
felt no remorse for cutting me off and endangering me as a fellow motorist.
Maybe it was unconscious body language that I sent out, who really knows?
Why is it that drivers will
tailgate a rider closer than they would ever follow a car, or knowingly cut a
rider off or otherwise impede us on the roadway? Is it because they know we can’t
afford to bump them or otherwise have to take firm action to avoid them,
knowing we’d lose any confrontation between car and bike? We certainly can’t
get mixed up with road rage by putting a boot to their side panel; one over
correction on their part and we’d be flying. Is it some sort of aggressive retaliation
for some time that a biker split the lanes at a stop light and then cut in
front of them at the green; or being frightened by a lane-splitter they didn’t see
coming at 20 or 30 MPH faster than they were going? Whatever their reasoning
is, they are a menace to riders. It’s bad enough that we have to be aware of
everybody who might not see us and endanger us without knowing.
Vigilance is the key and the only
thing that keeps a rider relatively safe on the roads with all sorts of
drivers. I knew this guy was going to roll through the stop sign and cut me off
and anticipated his actions otherwise my hard braking may not have been enough.
I had hoped that he wouldn’t mess with me further but couldn’t afford to assume
that he wouldn’t.
Now the million dollar question -
$64K just won’t cut it anymore: A show of hands please; how many of you mess
with anybody on the roads, bike, car, or big-assed trucks? That’s too many of
you even if we don’t count all the ones who fudged their answer. Don’t mess
with people on the roads; it’s bad for your health even if nothing comes of it
at the time. You develop bad habits and the experience does weird stuff to your
body, increasing heart rate and blood pressure while spiking the adrenaline.
And, like so many of the world’s religions tell us; what goes around, comes
around. Don’t treat others like you don’t want to be treated.
Vigilance always and keep the
iron side up.
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