Slow Down, You Move Too Fast!

Lately I have been riding my bicycle into work.  This not only provides a guaranteed source of exercise on a daily basis, it saves fuel, gives me twenty minutes a day to take in the surroundings, and reduces my carbon footprint. Instead of driving home for lunch everyday, I pack my lunch now which in turn forces me too eat less and to eat more healthy foods.  If all these benefits aren't enough to convince you that riding your bicycle to work is an all around benefit, I can also tell you since I've been riding my bicycle to work, I even feel less stress on a daily basis, for the most part.


Like most cyclists, I have a set bike path I use everyday to minimize my interference with traffic and pedestrians.  Luckily, I am able to use a sidewalk for most of my route, but for a small portion, I have to get on the roadway; ironically because the sidewalk I am in charge of designing and overseeing the construction of is not complete yet.  As everyone should know, this is perfectly legal as long as there is no other dedicated bike path or lane available for the cyclist's use.  Also, a cyclist is not to use a sidewalk unless it is legally defined as a shared use path, which my route is not, but I use the sidewalk anyway for reasons I am about to describe.


On my way home today, traffic was slightly heavier than normal, but nothing too substantial.  As I do everyday, when I reached the portion of the sidewalk that is under construction, I merged into traffic staying as close to the shoulder of the road as possible.  Once I passed the railroad tracks I cross everyday while on the road I kicked it into high gear too minimize the effect I have on the traffic.  The good thing about passing these tracks is the tracks are on the top of a fairly steep hill, so I can get up to a reasonable speed easily and quickly. When I hit the halfway point going down the hill, I noticed there were no vehicles behind me and I was about to cross traffic to get back on the sidewalk, so I moved from the shoulder to the center line of the road; this way I didn't have to cross two lanes of traffic to get to the sidewalk.


As I approached my exit, I hear a car behind me honking incessantly for me to get off the road.  This car couldn't have been behind me for more than ten seconds before he began his tirade.   Now I'm sure you are thinking to yourself "of course this guy was honking! You were on a bicycle in the middle of the road!", but the best (or worst) part of this whole situation was I was going 25 mph in a 30 mph zone while going up the hill!  


By the time I reached my exit, the man had managed between five and ten honks and proceeded to push the gas pedal down as far as it could go, once I was out of the way of course.  I'm sure there are some people out there who would be offended by the man's behavior and I'm sure there are others who would act in exactly the same way as the man if they were in his shoes. As for me, I just laughed to myself with a giant grin on my face thinking "where could this guy have been going that was so important that he couldn't spare five seconds of his time?".


In the past, I probably would have been a part of both of the groups I mentioned above.  I have since realized that nothing is so important that you need to get bent out of shape about being held up for a moment, with the exception of serious emergencies.


I believe if we all took a moment to calm down, be less selfish, and not be in such a hurry, we'd live in a more peaceful place and in my opinion, be a more productive society.



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