Stupid Motorist

I've been riding a bike since I was four years old. I can still remember the old yellow bike that I think was a hand-me-down from Robbie McIntyre. I remember the day that I first took it out with training wheels. After going half way down the block I got off and moved the training wheels off the ground, because they were getting in my way. Since that first half a block, I've put a lot of miles on my bikes; since April of this year I've logged almost 1300 km. I know how to cylce in traffic and, more importantly, I know what the laws are regarding vehicles vs. cyclists in Ontario. Of all the things motorists can do to cyclists, the one that grates on me the most is honking your horn.

Tonight, on the way home from work, an idiot motorist came up from behind and honked at me for not being on the sidewalk. I turned around and gave it right back to him. That apparently made him nervous and now he wouldn't pass me. Finally, on a road three lanes wide and with no on-coming traffic, he went by. However, a block later he was stopped at a red light. He further infuriated me because while he was going straight through at the light, I was turning right and he had left about six inches of room between his van and the curb. So as I walked by his van I gave it to him again. He seemed sincere in trying to wave an apology, but I really wasn't in the mode to have him brush me off and I know he heard what I had to say through the window. If he had taking one second to look at what I was wearing, he would have known that I'm not an inexperienced rider. But I think after hearing what I had to share with him, he may have gotten the idea.

I was fuming at this point and need to vent my frustrations. So I hammered it the rest of the ride home. It was about 4 km and most of it was at 40 km/hr. I got all the green lights, caught, passed and stayed ahead of a city bus and set myself a new top speed: 53.2 km/hr. I admit that this was going downhill and with the wind at my back, but that is flying. It was fast enough that I made it up the next hill at 35 km/hr. Going that fast up hills is nice, it makes them a lot shorter.

That's all I've got. Drive safe, bicycles belong on the road.