Road Rage

MC and I had a lovely experience with road rage the other day. We had finished up our bike ride - I had ridden home from work in downtown Seattle and MC met me midway. We had loaded our bikes on to the bike rack on top of the Vo and were driving back up to the plateau. I pulled into the turn lane and as we were waiting for the light a light colored SUV pulls by on the right, driver's window down, middle finger waving in the wind at us apparently. It took a while to figure out who he was flipping off. He leaned out the window and I could see his face in his side mirror - it looked like he said "bikes" with his face all scrunched up and looking mighty angry. He continued to give us the "bird" while sitting at the light. The turn light came on and as we rolled by him, MC rolled down the window and asked the man "are you alright?" The response - "fucking asses" and a red, scrunched up face. The guy was so incredibly angry. It made me grateful that we were in the car. If we had been on our bikes this guy would have run us off the road and left us for dead. I have no doubt about that.

I know they're are some cyclists out there who do stupid things on their bikes, key cars as they ride by, thump the trunk, get irrationally upset with drivers, etc. I understand that drivers get upset with cyclists for the dumb things they do. BUT, I have to tell you that as a cyclist it freaks me out that people in their cars sometimes forget just how vulnerable we are on our bikes. It's just me, the lyrca and my bike frame - I have no chance against a car. I try not to think about it because if I did, I may never get on my bike again.