Grrrr.
So my son and I are riding to work. We are on a residential street that has stop signs about every 1/10 of a mile.
I make it a habit to stop at every one of them. I think my son and I are among the only cyclists that do. And as usual, I came to a stop at one of those stop signs, on the right side of the lane as usual. I hear a loud buzzing behind me, and WHOOSH … a kitted out, middle aged man blows the stop sign at 20 MPH, and passing me … a couple of feet to
right.
WTF … what is the point in that? Just plain ignorance? What if I turned right?
I’ll admit here that my thoughts went to ugly places here. I KNOW I could have chased his fat ass down and spanked him good, but that would have meant blowing stop sign after stop sign, as he continued to do as he want along.
Later, we are on another street, this time a T intersection. My son and I are in a wide bike lane, and we come to a stop for a red light. The light changes green, and WHOOSH. This time, two kitted out middle aged men do the same thing … pass us on the right. WTF? And trust me, I let them know about it.
Then we turn onto the MUP. This is a section with a good number of walkers, some with dogs and leashes, and there are a number of intersections … often with clueless joggers or cyclists who don’t even look when turning onto it. For some silly reason, I keep my speed down here, and call out when I need to pass.
... and we get passed by two kitted out middle aged me going a good 20+ MPH, one drafting the other. WTF?
I know where all of those cyclists are going. They’re rushing over to the Pier so they can do a loop together in a tight peloton. And no doubt, they’ll all go home and post their Strava results about how they were able to make such good speed on their morning ride. Trust me, you don’t have to be any great shakes to keep up with them in that peloton … ain’t nothing special about it. I’m quite certain I could embarrass more than a few of them, particularly in the hills. But my son and I are riding to work … respectful of stop signs and others using the MUP … so I guess we’re Freds, eh?
What is it about these guys that makes them feel like anyone riding slower than them isn’t deserving of the same respect? Or is it just anyone else generally? Blowing stop sign after stop sign is certainly evidence of that.
Get a clue, dudes. You’re not that special.
Rant off.