Don't belong on the road
Oct. 12th, 2009 03:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunsen_hEarlier this afternoon, I was heading westwards along my street (Norice), and was slowing to a stop behind the student driver waiting at the red light to make a left turn onto Woodroffe. The SUV well behind me honked. I glanced backward, then returned my attention to the important matter of signaling my turn and coming to a safe stop, centred behind the student driver.
The SUV pulled up close behind me. Then edged fowards, partly in my lane and just to my right, so the woman could open her window and tell me that I wasn't supposed to ride across the road. "You're supposed to walk your bike across."
I gave her a "what planet are you from" look. "I'm a vehicle, and I have as much right to be on the road as you do."
She became more insistent. "But you aren't supposed to ride across the road. I'm sure of it. I don't want you to get in trouble."
A "what colours are the moons around your planet?" look. "Read your Driver's Handbook. I'm a vehicle, and I have as much right to be on the road as you or any other vehicle."
"But I don't think..."
Then the light changed, the car ahead went through, and I followed it. Carefully switched into the bike lane on Woodroffe when I was through the intersection. I was worried that the idiot was going to pass me on my right and then cut me off, but she stayed behind me through the intersection and stayed in the regular lane.
Good grief -- if she's expecting that cyclists won't ever try to bike across roads, she's going to hit somebody. Of the two of us, I know which one shouldn't be on the road. How can people be so ignorant?
The SUV pulled up close behind me. Then edged fowards, partly in my lane and just to my right, so the woman could open her window and tell me that I wasn't supposed to ride across the road. "You're supposed to walk your bike across."
I gave her a "what planet are you from" look. "I'm a vehicle, and I have as much right to be on the road as you do."
She became more insistent. "But you aren't supposed to ride across the road. I'm sure of it. I don't want you to get in trouble."
A "what colours are the moons around your planet?" look. "Read your Driver's Handbook. I'm a vehicle, and I have as much right to be on the road as you or any other vehicle."
"But I don't think..."
Then the light changed, the car ahead went through, and I followed it. Carefully switched into the bike lane on Woodroffe when I was through the intersection. I was worried that the idiot was going to pass me on my right and then cut me off, but she stayed behind me through the intersection and stayed in the regular lane.
Good grief -- if she's expecting that cyclists won't ever try to bike across roads, she's going to hit somebody. Of the two of us, I know which one shouldn't be on the road. How can people be so ignorant?
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Date: 2009-10-13 02:02 am (UTC)In the old days, the heuristic was "old guy, wearing a hat, driving a Buick - keep well clear." I've added a few terms - vanity plates (sorry to my friends who have them, but often they indicate too much car-centricity), SUVs, obvious cell phone use, ski box mounted in summer.
Only 14 days left for legal hand-help phone use while driving in Ontario! I hope it helps, but I doubt it.
(I did wind up once driving a rental Ford SUV, which I mentally dubbed the rent-a-behemoth. They're scary to drive, you're so high up and have such poor visibility. I've driven most of the things you can with a class G license, including a 5-ton truck, a diesel with a 6-speed gearshift. I'd take the 5-ton over the SUV for a feeling of knowing what was where.)