As of late, there is a bunch of annoyances I’m beginning to notice more and more on the roads I travel down on; namely militant bicyclists, cell-phone abusers & people who are in a hurry to get to where they are going to.
First things first; what is it with all those militant bicyclists who believe they should ride their bikes on the street as opposed to the sidewalk? Do they think their bicycles are cars too? Well, certainly they are not and for the most part, like some drivers, many militant bicyclists do not follow the rules of the road.
I’ve had more encounters with militant bicyclists lately, especially those who ride on the wrong side of the road, riding against traffic, total disregard for using hand-signals, improper lane usage & creep-in-the-road-without-looking factor.
If militant bicyclists want to ride their bikes on the road, they need to follow the rules and not dodge in and out of traffic. Sometimes, but not always, militant bikers appear as if they own the road and will stop at nothing to impress upon vehicular drivers that they do own it.
I remember a few years ago when a militant bicyclist cut me off when I had the right of way & I honked my horn at him. He flew back toward me on his bike, wielding what appeared to be a bike lock and bar toward me and my car with an alarmed, yet violent look upon his face.
I just pressed on the gas pedal and left him in a cloud of dust, watching him in my rear view mirror, just shaking his fists, riding around in a circle on a side street and mouthing curse words in my general direction. That was the only time I was ever frightened by a militant bicyclist.
And yet, some of those militant bicyclists behave and maneuver like the way some drivers do to other drivers when they want to get around them, which leads me into my next observation; what is all the hub-bub with the Hurry-Hurry Henrys lately?
Well, maybe not lately, but in my recent memory, it seems like more and more people are in a hurry to get where they are going to, either work or home. If you’re late for work, you’re late. What’s the sense in rushing if you have a mile pile-up of cars ahead of you that aren’t moving as fast as you would like them to? If you feel you’re going to be late to work, just leave earlier.
Honking the horn doesn’t help any, as it only gets the people in front of you angry or harried and what good does that do, if you want to pass them and they refuse to let you pass because you honked your horn at them only seconds earlier?
But it’s not just the drivers on the main thoroughfares I’m disappointed with; it’s those drivers that lurch out 30 feet from the stop-sign and into the middle of the intersection looking for a way to beat the car barreling straight for them. Just as that “said” car approaches, the intersected car leaps and flies across from them, beating them out by either half-a-second or half-a-clipped bumper. I think what those drivers do is what we used to call “playing chicken.”
It’s on the drive home that is really troublesome however. I see more accidents and near car wrecks that I care to admit. And why is it happening so much more frequently? I don’t know, perhaps they miss their television sets or their pets or their homes or their computer games or terribly dull lives, I’m not really sure.
The drivers that crack me up the most are the ones who rush and weave in and out of traffic, only to cut off four other drivers in the process, then make a quick left or right (as the case may be) & voila; they’re home! All that wasted energy for naught.
But then perhaps there is my most favorite of them all; the cell-phone abusers or Lobster-Clawed Bozos as I frequently refer to them as…I see them all over in both driving my own car & watching drivers during my break at the mill. Now granted I do use my cell-phone when I’m driving, I at least use an ear piece. I also have four basic rules; never to drive and talk during bad weather; never speak to The Arizona Babe when driving; always, always, always keep your eyes on the road and not the phone & never, ever, ever drive and talk while driving on the Interstate.
I do see a lot of people talking on their cell-phones, with one hand on the wheel, and driving as if nothing is wrong. Then I see the same kinds of folks either eating, dressing/putting on make-up or making out while driving; it seems as if cell-phones have taken their proper place next to all of the other fashionable bad habits.
Drivers with SUVs are the worst, a situational comedy at best, what with either kids or dogs bouncing up and down in their seats or hanging their heads out the window and parents driving, not paying attention to the road or their occupants, yet give all of their undivided attention to the person they are speaking to on the phone, when if they really needed to speak to that person, they could easily pull over and talk to them or wait until they get home.
All it takes is one split second and then…well, think of it this way; expect the unexpected; that is when you’re talking on a cell-phone and driving a car. It is assumed that drinking and driving is bad, because vision is easily impaired, but I really believe that concentration can become even more impaired when one doesn’t pay attention to how they are driving because they are on a cell-phone.
Or maybe I’m just too critical.
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