DISCLAIMER: scofflaw behavior and naughty language defended herein, post might be offensive to some people!

So, there's this mile long stretch of neighborhood road on my commute, bridges the gap between my apartment building and the MUP that takes me all the way to school. Along this stretch there's a section with four stop signs, three at three-way intersections and the final one at a four-way, all spaced about two blocks apart. Classic traffic calming signage, as there is hardly ever enough traffic to necessitate stop signs (yields would work just fine, as would nothing at all).

I roll these stop signs almost everyday, as the lines of sight approaching them are excellent, and unless there's cross traffic or police in sight (happens sometimes, so over the shoulder checks are always necessary) I just slow down, look both ways (or one way, in the case of the three-ways), and go. I do the same thing in my car. Some people think this is terrible and I don't care; if it bunches your panties into a knot to know that some of us roll stop signs without violating anyone's right of way, that's your problem.

This morning I got passed by a school bus, maybe 50 ft before the first stop sign. Close enough that by the time the driver brought the bus to a stop, I was almost halfway up the length of the bus. This happens sometimes, some motorist who just has to make that stop light/sign before you, accelerating hard around you only to brake right in front of you. Whatever. I'm mildly annoyed that the driver swung the front of the bus wide around me, only to pull back into the lane so fast that the tail of the bus damn near pushed me off of the paved part of the road; but after years of "sharing" the road with motorists, I've gotten into a "no harm, no foul" mindset, so, again, whatever.

I waited alongside, and then behind, the bus for the next two signs as the driver came to a full and complete stop at every sign. An annoying delay, and an irritating load of diesel exhaust to the face, but that's traffic and I'm almost to the MUP anyway. Notably, as I waited for the driver to bring his massive vehicle to a stop, to look both ways, and then to gun his behemoth back up to speed (seriously, he was doing his best to hit the 25 mph speed limit between stop signs) I had plenty of time to check for cross traffic. There was none; no cross traffic, no oncoming traffic, no turning traffic, nothing but the bus and I. So I rolled every stop sign behind the bus. I certainly wasn't about to roll a bus length forward, only to stop for empty air!

Finally, coming up the final stop sign, which is at the top of a continuous incline, I'm taking it easy and the bus as plenty of time to stop and then go before I can catch up to it. Except that it doesn't go, it just sits there with its right turn signal on. And sits there. And sits there. By the time I pull up to the rear of the bus, it's been sitting there for about three minutes with its turn signal on (it's going right, presumable to Romig Middle School, and I'm heading straight through to the MUP). I could see around the right of the bus: nothing there; and around the left of the bus: nothing there. I paused for a moment at the back of the bus, wondering what's going on, then decided to pass on the left.

I rode up the center line, paused at the front of the bus to look both ways ('cause the bus is totally blocking my view to the right), and since it's clear I went. I was halfway across the intersection when the driver came over the bus's PA (apparently school buses have PAs now; news to me) to inform me that, "Stop signs apply to bicycles, too." Apparently the driver'd been watching in his rear view as I rolled those signs behind him, and had taken offense.

The response was automatic. I try to not do this, I try to let the aggravation of traffic wash off of my back like water off the back of an especially Christ-like duck, but here I failed. I flipped the driver, and the entire bus load of middle schoolers, the day-glow bird (it's about 40ºF in the mornings, and my mid-weight gloves are day-glow yellow). The response from the bus driver (again, amplified): "Well, OK then." I didn't know that indignation could be broadcast through a PA system, but it can, and hearing it is hilarious. I LOLed, and had a pretty nice ride for the rest of the way to school.