I love bikes. Bicycles. Riding bikes. Cycling. Two wheels, and pedals. And making it go.
I don’t like the “I’m in a vehicle with an engine so I am omnipotent and am more powerful than you” drivers. Because they scare the crap out of me.
Yes, your vehicle is more powerful than I.
And I respect that.
What I respect more are the drivers of vehicles who show as much respect to bicycles as they do to any other human being.
It’s a simple thing really.
Don’t kill me with your car.
And when you don’t, I will thank you.
Today we hopped on our bikes to pedal for some lunch. The bike trail is a little odd. It goes along the road for a bit, and actually uses a sidewalk for a short distance. And the side walk curves with the road. If you aren’t familiar with this, and you are in a car, it may appear as if the bikers are going to shoot straight across a road that you may be turning right in to. When actually the bikers on the trail are curving to their right on a very separate path.
Today as I approached the curve to my right a car pulled up along side me, I could see her in my peripheral vision. I couldn’t stop because husband was behind me. She was on my left and trying to see where I was going. She literally stopped in the road with vehicles behind her as I continued on the curve of the bike path. She pulled up a little bit and I kept saying “it’s okay, go ahead, it’s okay”. Finally she did, once she saw where I was going.
She was going to the grocery store so I followed her. She probably thought I was stalking her or going to yell at her. Such are the fears of the world these days.
By the time I caught up to her she was out of her car crossing the lot. I pedaled slowly and asked if she was the lady who came around the curve when I did. She nodded yes and her eyes were looking me over for signs of danger (which I applaud, be careful folks!). I told her I really appreciated the courtesy she was showing me. I’ve seen so many drivers at that curve shoot ahead thinking a bicyclist was going to try and cut them off. And if the biker was going to do that, the drivers would have hit them. She smiled, in appreciation (or relief) and said she had been hit by a car on her bike once and is very careful of other bikers. I told her I just wanted to thank her, she made my day.
She smiled and said thank you for going out of my way to do so. I had been balancing on my bike so I didn’t have to come to a complete stop and I turned around to go and she shouted “thank you! And have a great day!!”
I told her “I WILL!” and happily pedaled away thanking her for not wanting to kill me.
It’s the little things.
😉
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