Over the summer drivers have seemed a little more polite toward cyclists....but:

This weekend I came up behind a small woman trying to cross a multi lane road. She pushed the button for the walk signal and waited and began crossing when she saw the sign light up for her. I was behind. This guy in a huge black SUV drove into the crosswalk leaning on the horn scaring her out of the crosswalk. That image of a white guy in a big car basically threatening to use deadly force against a small Asian woman in a crosswalk struck a raw nerve. Like an idiot I jumped in front of the SUV yelling at the guy that I had the light and he could just wait. It might have been comical to a dis interested viewer but there were none. The other people at the intersection were all in cars and they began honking and yelling. When I got to the other side one woman in an SUV rolled down her window and yelled "The light doesn't matter you don't have the right to slow a car." She may be right, part of the Virginia code goes:

"No pedestrian shall enter or cross an intersection in disregard of approaching traffic."

Big black SUV wasn't approaching really, he was making a right hand turn into the crosswalk, but the "cars first" intent seems to match the woman's comment.

It was pretty dumb of me to stand in front of an angry guy in a car. On the other side the woman said to me "I wanted to do what you did but was too scared. Rich people don't care about anyone but themselves." When I start imagining things are getting better something like this happens to bring me back to reality.