Don't Be Stupid

I really felt like yelling this time and again at drivers last night! “Don’t be stupid!” However, since they were all in their metal boxes, although some with a window cracked, they couldn’t have heard me even if I had yelled it.

Where to begin? Well, I knew that smoking was popular on the west side, but I didn’t know that it’s popularity had skyrocketed over the Winter. I swear there was a smoker at every intersection last night. And I got to breather all of their exhaust, both from the car and their mouth. The stupidity here should be self evident, but let me just clarify that smoking is not good for you, and it leads to distracted driving as bad as someone on a cell phone. I just couldn’t believe the increase in smoking and other mass stupidity that had come over the population along my commute route.

There was the guy in the moster SUV who decided it would be smart to turn around the cyclist. Let me clarify a bit further. Her decided that he would loop out into the left turn lane, then angle himself hard across the lane of traffic to be able to get a tun in before the light changed. In the end he did get onto the street a few seconds earlier than witing, but, wow, what a bone-headed way to get home so little quicker.

There were three people pulled over along my short commute. That’s moer than one driver per 5 km. I don’t know what they did, but there was, apparently, mass stupidity preceding my ride as well as duing it. Where, however, was the cop during that stupid turning-right-from-the-left-lane incident I just talked about. That would have been good. Oh, wait, the cop drove past about 20 cars after the guy turned. Dang, that could have been four citations.

Let me preface this one by saying that I am grateful that the vast majority of drivers are pretty smart on this next item, and whether they realize that Utah has a three-foot passing law or not, usually provide closte to that when they pass me. However, there’s always the idiot who wants to prove his sole right to use the road as a motorist and buzzes the cyclist. He pulled this one just before pull-over number three. Some little, silver wannabe-racer car had to rev his missing muffler as he zipped past the cyclist to prove his gas-guzzling superiority. Maybe if I hadn’t had the immediate impression that he was a moron I could have been impressed by the noise his car made, or how quickly he could accelerate. However, neither of those latter two thoughts made it pas the moron label at the time. Too bad for him.

Then there’s the truck who is offered a small opening in a line of traffic and pulls out just far enough to claim that spot, but also just far enough to make going around him impossible either to the front of the back. While the cars may be backed up on their lane, there’s nothing ahead for nearly a kilometer in mine, except for this one joker parked across my lane. Fortunately he was able to inch forward enough for me to pass, so that I could make that light, rather than waiting another three. So far, I think I can forgive this one more than the others. But it was annoying to have to lose my momentum then crank back up to speed.

Okay, now this is a gripe I have whether I’m on a bike or in a car: Choose one lane and stick with it, people. Seriously, when one lane of traffic splits near an intersection to allow for different lanes for turning and straight traffic, choose one of them. Then act like you’re in that lane. There are at least two intersections where this is a constant problem. People either can’t decide which lane they want, so that all traffic has to wait for the slower lane to move before anyone can more; or they choose a lane, but then can’t commit to driving in it and sit there for a while. This is only a problem when I want to actually go through the intersection ahead of me. I guess I should blame this on men, since they are so frequently blamed for not being able to commit, but I think this is a gender neutral issue. Just commit.

After all of that, turning into my neighborhood was a blessed relief. I at least knew that I could predict the drivers from long experience, and I’ve found most of them to be pretty good, at least around their own homes and the neighbor’s kids.

I am more motivated than ever to get through the book Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do, and What it Says about Us that I just got from the library. I’m sure that I’ll find something scathing about me, but I’m sure there’s plenty about these clod-pated drivers as well.