Missed connection

[ebubar]

Dear Mercedes Lady on M-Street,

I think you have some rage issues since you feel the need to scream at me from inside your car as I sit in the turn lane waiting for a chance to turn. I apparently offended you just by being on my bike.

It’s absolutely right and proper for you to block the intersection even when there is a parking lot of cars in front of you going nowhere. That I would have the audacity to attempt to turn when the fellow cager on your right side was trying to be nice and wave me through is just inconceivable. I am ashamed and clearly need to retire from all cycling and should go buy a car that costs more than my entire undergraduate and graduate education and drive around yelling at people through my closed window.

And to the other lady who informed me of how dangerous I was since nobody could possibly see me despite the reflective cycling jacket, two headlights, three rear red blinking lights and green spoke lights, I might suggest getting your eyes checked. With the police officer I was parked next to at a light commenting on how well lit I was, I would tend to take his opinion over your own. However, thanks for letting me know your thoughts in a not entirely condescending manner.

[NicDiesel]

@ebubar 74667 wrote:

I think you have some rage issues since you feel the need to scream at me from inside your car as I sit in the turn lane waiting for a chance to turn. I apparently offended you just by being on my bike.

Man, this is the skata I don’t miss. Be safe and don’t let the bastards bring you down.

[runbike]

To the westbound cyclist on the WOD between Patrick Henry and Ohio around 6:15 this AM – thanks for covering your light as you passed me during my morning run. I don’t think you heard me since we simultaneously thanked each other in passing (me thanking you for the light coverage and you thanking me for wearing my reflective vest), but I appreciated the gesture and it was a nice, convivial way to start the morning. You must be a member on this board, right?

[GB]

@run/bike 74746 wrote:

To the westbound cyclist on the WOD between Patrick Henry and Ohio around 6:15 this AM – thanks for covering your light as you passed me during my morning run. I don’t think you heard me since we simultaneously thanked each other in passing

run/bike;74746 wrote:

I think that was me. Thanks for the post. And thanks again for the bright outfit. I agree a friendly hello and thanks is a much better way to start the day than “where did you come from”. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your run.

[jnva]

To the driver of the Lexus on fairfax drive tonight. Your lucky I didn’t break your side mirror after you tried to intentionally run me over. Your also lucky I forgot to charge my gopro battery.

[cyclingfool]

To the guy with his bike stopped on the side of the MVT just south of Gravelly Pt. parking lot whom I slowed to ask if everything was OK, thank you for the warning about the glass on the trail and for stopping to clean it up!!! (I would have offered to help clean up, but I was running late and you said you’d already gotten it almost all cleaned up.)

[ebubar]

@jnva 74772 wrote:

To the driver of the Lexus on fairfax drive tonight. Your lucky I didn’t break your side mirror after you tried to intentionally run me over. Your also lucky I forgot to charge my gopro battery.

It’s moments like these that make me not enjoy my commute as much. Maybe we can engineer an EMP pulse coupled with proximity sensors that shuts-down a car for passing too close. Or proximity sensor coupled with red light camera tech to automatically ticket someone who passes bikes too close.

[dkel]

ebubar;74786 wrote:

it’s moments like these that make me not enjoy my commute as much. Maybe we can engineer an emp pulse coupled with proximity sensors that shuts-down a car for passing too close. Or proximity sensor coupled with red light camera tech to automatically ticket someone who passes bikes too close.

rpg

[jnva]

@ebubar 74786 wrote:

It’s moments like these that make me not enjoy my commute as much. Maybe we can engineer an EMP pulse coupled with proximity sensors that shuts-down a car for passing too close. Or proximity sensor coupled with red light camera tech to automatically ticket someone who passes bikes too close.

I just don’t understand why the bike lane ends halfway down fairfax drive. Why not extend it just a little further? That would have probably prevented this incident. The driver literally got so close to me that I reached out and hit his door. And I was hugging the curb.

[jrenaut]

Take the lane in Thomas Circle so you don’t get right hooked by idiots turning right on M, they say. It’s much safer if you’re in the car lane than the bike lane there, they say. Well, I say what about the crazy idiots who turn right from the center lane, huh? What about almost getting right hooked by them?

You know what that circle needs? A big giant movie screen, playing clips from European Vacation on infinite loop. Big Ben, kids! Parliament! It’s a [expletive deleted] CIRCLE. You can just keep going around if you miss your turn.

[americancyclo]

@jrenaut 74797 wrote:

It’s a [expletive deleted] CIRCLE. You can just keep going around if you miss your turn.

But that would take even more seconds than the average annoying cyclist slows me down by taking the lane!

[jrenaut]

We could pay to have the entire city encrusted in gold just with revenue from failure to yield tickets at the turn off Thomas Circle to M.

[Terpfan]

@jrenaut 74800 wrote:

We could pay to have the entire city encrusted in gold just with revenue from failure to yield tickets at the turn off Thomas Circle to M.

Yep. I always try to double to 15th St Cycletrack just to avoid it when i’m over that way. And that’s not even to mention all the cars double parked in the bike lane, the buses, or the construction on 14th. Even when I walk to Thomas Circle, I have to be careful having almost been hit a handful of times at crosswalks with the signal.

[jrenaut]

@Terpfan 74804 wrote:

Yep. I always try to double to 15th St Cycletrack just to avoid it when i’m over that way. And that’s not even to mention all the cars double parked in the bike lane, the buses, or the construction on 14th. Even when I walk to Thomas Circle, I have to be careful having almost been hit a handful of times at crosswalks with the signal.

But 15th southbound is just miserable. The light timing is (obviously) for cars going north so you hit pretty much every red light going south. The only time I use 15th to go south is when I’m pulling the kids (And sometimes not even then). 14th is a mess, certainly, but I still prefer it.

[Drewdane]

If you’re going to secure your bike by simply looping a cable lock through your frame and around the rack stanchion, please don’t take the end space. People who double-lock their bikes thank you for your consideration.

(Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go outside while I still have some lunch hour left – that wind’s not gonna spit into itself, you know…)

[Author]

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