Bicycle Rage?

Over this past weekend, I spent some time with a friend from Athens who is on a tour of graduate business programs throughout the Northeast.  In discussing transportation options for living in this area, we naturally talked about the pros and cons of riding a bike as a means of basic transportation, which I have done almost exclusively since I arrived here.  What I told my friend was to Boston’s credit…but an unpleasant experience on my commute this morning is making me question the idyllic “everybody loves bikes here” image I tried to impress on my friend.  What I still want to believe is that Boston, since it’s a big “small” town with fairly accessible public transportation, not too crazy drivers and plenty of bicycle lanes on most of the major veins throughout the city, is that it is relatively safe to ride your bike here.  I would even be willing to bet that biking is much safer here than Athens, a tiny town in comparison, but where I know people who have been hospitalized multiple times & have even come within an inch of death at the hands of ignorant, careless drivers who believe that the roads should be off-limits to anyone unable to fly at speeds of 80 mph. 

Biking for transportation in Athens, or even in Dalton, where I grew up, is still not terribly common & understandably so with all of the hills that get in the way of an easier ride.  So, even though I used my bike relatively less while living in Georgia, I can still remember many a time where some bully driver tried to run me off the road while spouting ridiculous anti-bicycle hate-speech or flipping me a bird…Ok, that sounds a little exaggerated, but it’s really not too far from the truth y’all.  I never could understand this angst against bicyclists…after all, isn’t pretty much everyone upset about higher gas prices or strapped for cash and trying to find ways to cut back on daily expenses?  Regardless of how you feel about the benefits of using less energy (I’m not a tree-hugger by any means!) or the possibility that our expensive oil habits are keeping terrorism in business (up for debate of course!), a rational person should respect someone for trying to cut back on their use of a car, save money on parking or public transportation and get some much needed exercise at the same time!  Seemed like a pretty good idea to me here in Boston and I would say that 95% of the time, drivers have been very respectful and overly considerate of those of us peddling our way around town.      

Unfortunately, it’s that other 5% of drivers, like the SUV, soccer-mom lady honking & mouthing off to me to her little heart’s content this morning, who send my blood-pressure spinning out of control and give me sufficient motivation to take the time to write a post like this!  For my part, I try my best to cede the right of way to cars whenever I can, but am also very aware of the fact that it is my derrière on the line and that first and foremost I have to watch out for myself, lest I wind up getting “doored” (this is what happens when a car parked on the right side of the road opens up their driver’s side door right before you pass by…you can imagine what happens next!) or smashed into by a 2 ton object going at speeds of 40-60 mph!  So, the precautions you take (I do at least) as a cyclist to prevent these things from happening are the following:

1)  Always ride at least 3-5 feet into the lane away from the cars parked on the street.

 

2) When crossing a major intersection, establish yourself in the middle of whichever lane you need to be in so that a crazy-driver doesn’t try to pass you and wind up pushing you into another lane of traffic or worse into an on-coming car!

3) When riding the wrong-way on a one-way street, always pull over to the side when a car is coming your way…(Ok, this last one should be a no-no anyway, but I’m sure I’m not the only guy on a bike who winds up having to do this on limited occasions!) 

I’m sure more experienced cyclists than me could come up with more guidelines than these for safe riding, but they have definitely helped me protect my body and limbs sufficiently to this point…knock on wood!

All this to say that when riding a bike, you try to be as respectful and yielding to cars as you can be while still protecting yourself…so, why can’t those few hurried drivers slow it down a touch & not heckle us to the point that we risk putting ourselves in danger on the road just because they may have to wait 30 seconds to pass?  I guess this will only ever occur in the meilleur des mondes possibles and if Candide couldn’t find that world, even in El Dorado, I’m unlikely to find it in New England...as much as I may still try.