Inner City Cyclists

I ride my bicycle to work almost every day.  It’s not far, about 2 miles, give or take.  Some days I have things to do and don’t want to ride home that late, or, more importantly, carrying all that stuff.  Sometimes I feel like a walk.  Sometimes, I’m all dressed up, and I’d prefer not to be sweaty, since that spoils the illusion.  But, I usually ride almost every day.

Those of you who live in the inner city, particularly my inner city  may have noticed me, and probably even made some internal comment about me.  No, I’m not that striking or exceptionally pretty.  What you’d noticed is how I stop at all red lights and stop signs.  All of them.

There’s a few reasons why I do this.  One, it’s safer then just barreling through as so many of my brethren (and sistren) seem to do.  Second, and more importantly, it’s the law.  When riding on the road, I have the same rights and obligations as a car.  That means I have to stop at all stop signs and red lights, obey all traffic regulations and flows, follow all signs, yield to pedestrians, and everything else (though I’m not that concerned about breaking the speed limit given it’s almost physical impossibility).  

Since I’m mostly on straight roads with bike lanes during rush hour, I find that, on average, I pretty much keep up with cars so I’m usually at the next set of red lights before they turn green, and with the same basic set of cars as before.  This tells me the lights are timed very well, but that’s a different problem.  Some drivers seem to notice, since for the most part, I’m usually given clearance to turn when I signal.  Did I mention I use turn signals?  Well, not actually blinking lights, but I do point my arm out to the left or right pointing, moving it up and down slowly.

I mention this not because I want to brag, or want to come off holier than thou, but the other night, I was walking home from work reasonably late (8pm).  OK, that’s not late in and of itself, but it is late coming home from a 9-5 job.  In the first 10 minutes of the walk, I was almost hit by a cyclyist 2 times.  The first time, I was crossing a 5 lane one way road, with the light, and he came past on the inside of some cars as I was walking in front and just missed me.  The second time, a few blocks later, he came down the wrong way of a one way street, again running the light at speed and scared the bejeebers about of me.

The third time though, the third time that night I had it.  He came running through at speed and ran over my shoe.  I believe the term used for my actions was “lost my cool”.  I shouted just about every obscenity I could think of at this man.  At this point, I made sailors blush in embarrassment.  I was so hopping mad, spitting nails and just fuming that I made the rash decision to call the police and report him.

Eventually, when the cops came, no one who was present would bother as a witness, the officer explained that without any verification, there was nothing he could do, especially since I wasn’t injured, and that he couldn’t even write a ticket.

I’m crestfallen, and dejected.  Cycling is a great way to get around in the inner city.  You save so much money on parking.  You get some exercise.  It’s about as fast, given the amount of lights, signs and other other obstacles as a car.  But, like everything else, selfish and inconsiderate people seem to manage to find every possible way to ruin things for the rest of us.

I’m seriously considering stopping riding because I just don’t want to be associated with those riders that think the rules of the road don’t apply to them.

I’m sad, and heartbroken, and I’m buying some new shoes with thicker soles to handle the extra pavement pounding.