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04-17-08, 08:17 AM
Bad thread title pun, I know.
Just random observations on three minor events on my usually uneventful commute.
1) Bike cop.
Heading south at a leisurely pace on Lascelles Blvd from Eglinton, I do my usual practise of slowing for a residential stop sign. I decided a while back I couldn't feel smugly superior to car drivers unless I slowed at least as much as they do at stop signs, but I don't usually do a full stop.
Apparently it was good enough. Just past the intersection a big yellow blur appears to my left - a bike cop pulling alongside. Oh oh! But no, he doesn't give me a glance as he surges ahead and drops into line between me and a young lady farther up. She cruises blythely through the next residential stop sign. I wonder if he will stop. It doesn't look like it. At the absolute last minute he does a brief, nearly full stop almost into the cross street. Then he chases her down and pulls her over.
2) Chat.
A few blocks later I'm waiting at Kilbarry and Oriole Parkway for the light, and checking for yellow jackets behind me. I see one approaching, but its not the cop. It's different young woman. "Did you see the bike cop? "I ask, one of the rare times I actually speak to a fellow commuter.
"Yeah," she says, "he stopped me for not signalling".
Apparently she got off with a lecture. The light changes and I wave her ahead, since I'm planning to glance back one more time, then make a safe, but possibly illegal left turn.
3) Low speed cut off
Traffic is congested at the foot of Poplar Plains Rd, where two streets converge to go under the railroad tracks to Dupont. I'm at the stop sign beside a Jeep. It's our turn and we start forward, and since the underpass is narrowed, and stop and go, due to construction, I'm thinking of "cheating" and getting on the sidewalk on the far side of the intersection. So instead of curving left with the Jeep, I head in a straighter line towards the sidewalk entrance. But the Jeep stays with me. He's swinging pretty wide to the right in his supposed left turn. Finally he angles left and comes to a stop with his bumper a foot from the far curb, and I get it. He was deliberately blocking me from passing him or entering the underpass beside him, even though he's going to be stuck in that bottleneck for a minute or two because of other cars, and I wouldn't have inconvenienced him in the slightest. I forget about the sidewalk, and with a smile and wave, I squeeze past him and filter through the underpass in the right side of the lane, to prove a point.
Just random observations on three minor events on my usually uneventful commute.
1) Bike cop.
Heading south at a leisurely pace on Lascelles Blvd from Eglinton, I do my usual practise of slowing for a residential stop sign. I decided a while back I couldn't feel smugly superior to car drivers unless I slowed at least as much as they do at stop signs, but I don't usually do a full stop.
Apparently it was good enough. Just past the intersection a big yellow blur appears to my left - a bike cop pulling alongside. Oh oh! But no, he doesn't give me a glance as he surges ahead and drops into line between me and a young lady farther up. She cruises blythely through the next residential stop sign. I wonder if he will stop. It doesn't look like it. At the absolute last minute he does a brief, nearly full stop almost into the cross street. Then he chases her down and pulls her over.
2) Chat.
A few blocks later I'm waiting at Kilbarry and Oriole Parkway for the light, and checking for yellow jackets behind me. I see one approaching, but its not the cop. It's different young woman. "Did you see the bike cop? "I ask, one of the rare times I actually speak to a fellow commuter.
"Yeah," she says, "he stopped me for not signalling".
Apparently she got off with a lecture. The light changes and I wave her ahead, since I'm planning to glance back one more time, then make a safe, but possibly illegal left turn.
3) Low speed cut off
Traffic is congested at the foot of Poplar Plains Rd, where two streets converge to go under the railroad tracks to Dupont. I'm at the stop sign beside a Jeep. It's our turn and we start forward, and since the underpass is narrowed, and stop and go, due to construction, I'm thinking of "cheating" and getting on the sidewalk on the far side of the intersection. So instead of curving left with the Jeep, I head in a straighter line towards the sidewalk entrance. But the Jeep stays with me. He's swinging pretty wide to the right in his supposed left turn. Finally he angles left and comes to a stop with his bumper a foot from the far curb, and I get it. He was deliberately blocking me from passing him or entering the underpass beside him, even though he's going to be stuck in that bottleneck for a minute or two because of other cars, and I wouldn't have inconvenienced him in the slightest. I forget about the sidewalk, and with a smile and wave, I squeeze past him and filter through the underpass in the right side of the lane, to prove a point.