Yet another reason I'm glad I'm not an American!!

I rolled through a stop sign once and was stopped by one, but he let me off with a warning, and because I wasn't carrying my driver's licence, he couldn't ticket me anyway. His parting comment was, "Next time you ride in the park, don't forget your driver's licence." But that is the worst "altercation" I've ever been in with a police officer.

Occasionally if some of us are riding 2 or 3 abreast, one will pull up along side us and quietly remind us to ride single file, especially if we happen to see other traffic around.

One was VERY concerned about me. I guess a trucker had called me in because he saw me out on the highway in the middle of a vicious storm. That storm contained funnels, and a tornado wiped out the beach I had been on a couple hours earlier. By the time the police officer caught up to me, I was about 10 kms from home, so I told him I just had a little ways to go ... and he told me to take care out there, and to make sure I take shelter in some of the buildings along the way if the storm got any worse.

On my longer brevets here in Alberta, the ones that go all night long, my father will come out in the evening and leapfrog me in his van to keep an eye on me. He feels uncomfortable with the idea of me cycling for hours and hours in the dark. Several times a police officer has come cruising past me, and then pulled up beside my father's van to ask him what he is doing out there. My father explains ... once I came up during the explanation to validate it ... and the police officer heads off again reassured that I'm OK and not being followed by someone out there.

The police are our friends. They are there to serve and protect.