Enjoyed a bit of cager irony today:

Part of the bike route I follow to work is on a street that ends in a cul-de-sac, installed to keep traffic on the main road instead that runs parallel, instead of on these little residential side streets. Anyway, I pull off the bike path, into the cul-de-sac, and there's a minor traffic jam of maybe 6 cars, hemmed in by a delivery van that appears stuck in the middle of a three-point turn. At first I thought the van driver was just slow to turn around, and I wondered about the wisdom of 'running the gauntlet' and trying to decide whether to stop, or go around the van and risk getting backed into.

As I approached however, I heard the van driver fruitlessly cranking the engine, and I realised that a couple of drivers had been waiting long enough to have abandoned their cages, and stood watching in futility. I glided past them on my bike and deeked around the crippled van, then I stopped, dismounted and helped the driver push the van out of the way, to let the traffic pass.

I wonder about the karmic +/- on this one: yes, I did a good deed by helping the stranded van driver, but I also freed a bunch of cars to belch pollution and wreak havoc on city streets - like poking an arterial cholesterol deposit. I wonder how many of those dirvers realized that (today at least) they owe their freedom of mobility to a cyclist, and will it make them more congenial as drivers?