Sometimes you just have to love our not-so-cycling-friendly Southern law enforcement. I got pulled over by a cop today on my morning bike commute.

I ride for about 3-4 miles down Blanding Blvd., a major local road (6 lane with a divided center). The morning traffic is heavy northbound, but I'm coming south and I've never had a problem. I try to be as safe as possible, and pick the best route I can, but I still have a couple of sections of my commute on roads that are less than ideal. With safety in mind, I just bought a couple of screaming lime yellow Safety Shirts (thanks to a thread on this forum for the source!) and I wore one this morning. So I'm cruising along when suddenly a siren goes off about 10 feet in back of me. I nearly hit the curb.

I stop and so does the cop, with his car in the lane w/lights on. I ask him what the problem is, and he gets out going "Not on Blanding Blvd., you can't be doing this!" I was polite, told him I had every intention of being safe, that my screaming yellow shirt was an indicator of this, and that the law allows me to ride there.

He backed off at that point but said that "he almost hit me" and suggested that I pick an alternate route, at which point I told him that I had picked the best one I could and appreciated his concern for my safety. I thought about telling him I was glad he hadn't hit me because that would be one hell of a lawsuit! It's probably a good thing I kept that thought to myself.

So..I pedaled on to work, but I just felt like I had to vent! I love cycling to work for the savings, "free" training time, and just because it makes me feel good. To top it off, the cop who stopped me was about 30-40 pounds overweight.