I have been Workout Girl this week. Two days into the week, I have 11 activity points. On Sunday, I'll be earning the whopping 18 for the 40-mile ride. Gosh, have I mentioned the Bike for Sight ride much? Yeesh...seems like I'm talking about it every second. Sorry. It's just on my mind constantly, because I've never gone that far before, and I haven't trained all that much lately.
I did go for an 11-or-so mile ride last night after work. Biking's hard at night, though, because I'm all tired, and there's too much traffic on the roads. I end up having to stop at every intersection, and it's so much harder to get going from a stop. Speaking of which...the drivers in my neighborhood are really starting to piss me off.
First, there's the people who don't understand that bikes have the same right to be on the road as cars. We need to follow the same rules of the road, and I like to be courteous to faster-moving vehicles and stay as far to the right as possible. HOWEVER....technically, I am using the same lane they are (if there is no bike lane), and I have the same right to use all of it. There are obstacles on the roadway, such as uneven road seams, sewer grates, large puddles, and potholes, that are much more of a hazard to a cyclist than they are to a driver. I always check to be sure that there are no cars immediately behind me if I swing around to avoid one of these things, but still it never fails that some dumbass two carlengths behind me will lay on the horn. And then there's the guys who allow, like, 2 inches clearance when passing me, even if there's no one else on the road and I'm practically hugging the curb. Jackasses.
The problem isn't always that the drivers are rude, either. Sometimes they're too accommodating. Once again, I have to follow the same set of traffic laws cars do. If a car has to yield at a 4-way stop, so do I. (Full disclosure, though, I do blow through them if there's no one coming. I would in my car, too, if my neighborhood didn't have its own sheriff's patrols.) And yet, even if I get to an 4-way stop a full 10 seconds after a car, they still wave me through. After I've stopped, and with this exasperated hand flit, like it's my fault that they've arbitrarily chosen to let me go first. If they're going to be "nice", I would at least like them to do it BEFORE I come to a complete stop, otherwise it's a waste of my time AND theirs.
Whew. There, I feel better. Now, what was I talking about? Oh, never mind.
Posted by Joy at September 25, 2003 03:00 PM