I don’t have many issues with drivers, but there’s the occasional imbecile that just barely misses my left handlebar, but a miss is a miss, so no harm done. I don’t let it bend me out of shape, but instead I continue enjoying my ride.

However, a driver did strike my left arm and left handlebar with her passenger side mirror in late April while I was doing 25 MPH down a mild incline in broad daylight (around noon with excellent visibility). The impact with my left arm removed my left hand from the handgrip just as an instant later her passenger side mirror struck my left handlebar, which sent my bike into a death shake oscillation that didn’t seem recoverable especially with only one hand remaining on the handlebar with a foot high curb awaiting my new out of control trajectory (gulp).

However, the Lord tends to looks favorably upon me, so I miraculously managed to regain control of my bike just in time to avoid the foot high curb and was able to continue without much loss of speed (a genuine “thank you, Lord” moment). The driver kept going as though nothing happened, but she knew she struck me, as the impact sound of her passenger side mirror was quite loud and her windows were wide open with no radio playing. In her rear view mirror she would also see the death shake and near collision with the foot high curb that she invoked by the impact.

About 100 yards from the point of impact, she suddenly stopped her car dead in the right lane at which time she caused speeding traffic to swerve in all directions to avoid hitting her, which again put me in danger as I had to dodge all the swerving cars! It was akin to a game of “Dodge Ball with Cars” or “Asteroids”. Now tell me there isn’t real excitement and adventure to be had when bicycling, ay?

Rather than pointlessly name call the driver as I rode by her (which fails to reverse the scenario or make anyone smarter or more apologetic), I simply recited the “4 foot law that’s in effect for bicyclists in PA”. She just sat their dead stopped in the right lane of traffic looking every bit the dullard that her folly of imbecilic actions revealed her to be. Soon after, she started moving again and this time she passed me with plenty of clearance.

Just seconds later I was already back in my zone and enjoying my ride to the LBS. After all, I was heading to the LBS to pick up the new components I ordered, so how could I have a bad day with that to look forward to.