The "I bit my tounge" incident thread

[StopMeansStop]

Since I’m trying to be a more polite cyclist, I’m filing these reports here to let off steam instead of screaming or flipping the bird. Feel free to chime in with your reports.

Location: The MUT between Clarendon and Route 50

Me: Properly attired, alertly scanning the trail ahead and notifying users with a bell

Subjects: Two thirty something women blocking the trail and ignoring my requests to make a hole. One of them was “walking” an unleashed dog. I had to stop and unclip and skid stop to avoid hitting dog.

Result: I bit my tongue. Not even a “leash your dog”.

Bile level: 3 out of 10

Topic

[Dirt]

The hard thing to find in situations like these is balance. Stooping to the lowest level may feel good for a moment, but it ends up promoting the problem. Doing nothing also doesn’t provide any kind of solution. There is usually somewhere in between that is an approach that actually comes close to helping relations.

Some interactions are never going to have a positive outcome. It is a shame, but true.

[baiskeli]

@pfunkallstar 8421 wrote:

I admit to doing some light wheelsucking this morning, but it was largely due to the two herniated discs in my back giving me grief. Now my didn’t “quite bite my tongue story.”

Does cycling help that? It always seems to help me.

W&OD yesterday ladies running side-by-side with those double-wide baby strollers. Pulled up behind them and said in what I thought was a genuinely nice voice “Could I get by on your left.” Lady in red on the left looked genuinely outraged and muttered something under her breath. I passed and glanced back to see that she didn’t even have a kid in her stroller! WTF? I guess she was just trying to commiserate with her fellow mom runner or something? Perhaps the kid abandoned ship back on the Custis? We’ll never know. But GOD SPEED LOST STROLLER CHILD! We’ll never forget you!

I used to stroll my kid to daycare and then wheel the empty stroller back home. Pretty much every time, some passerby would say “you forgot something!” Hilarious.

[eminva]

@Dirt 8450 wrote:

There is usually somewhere in between that is an approach that actually comes close to helping relations.

The relatively few times I have taken the trouble to chase down and talk to a fellow cyclist had positive outcomes. Come to think of it, each instance involved an unsafe pass that endangered me and a pedestrian or multiple pedestrians. In each case I was forthright but polite. Maybe they were just so astonished to have someone (especially a beyond middle age woman) challenge them they were temporarily disarmed. I had a thoughtful conversation with one guy who gave all the appearances of taking our exchange to heart. Who knows, but I try.

Liz

[jrenaut]

@baiskeli 8456 wrote:

I used to stroll my kid to daycare and then wheel the empty stroller back home. Pretty much every time, some passerby would say “you forgot something!” Hilarious.

When I was picking up both kids from daycare I brought the empty stroller with me – I told someone who made that joke that I was heading to daycare for a refill.

[rcannon100]

Yeah some friends circulated that article yesterday on facebook. I suspect that you probably could poke holes in the methodology pretty easily. And my first guess is that you could correlate the rise in aggressive driving to two things: the dramatic increase in traffic demand and the all but absent enforcement of traffic laws. My guess is that people-pushing-back is a weak variable, and I would also suggest that its a constant variable. People were as unlikely to push back 20 years ago as they are today – but traffic volumes have changed, political leaders (except for Arlington) have failed miserably in smart growth traffic planning, and law enforcement has become a joke.

I came back from graduate school in the NE 20 years ago, from a place where if you stopped at a red light you WOULD get rear ended. I came to Arlington, had not adjusted back to Arlington culture, and had a ticket almost immediately. That was good. Now days, its not a question of whether someone will run a red light, its a question of how many cars will run the red light. There is no enforcement.

So is this all about us “speaking up.” I dont think it is. I think you make your choices – and yes, occasionally, speaking up works. But most of the time this is about your karma. I passed a woman on Lee Hwy on the sidewalk / designated bike path; she yelled at me “This! Is! My! Sidewalk!” I laughed and didnt say anything. Another jogger, I passed on the Custis hill and rang the bell, but I am old and slow – on the hill he passed me back – and then at the top I passed him again, again ringing the bell. BOY did he cuss at me.

If you take it upon yourself to fight aggressive driving, you are going to arrive fried. You are going to become argumentative and combative. You are going to ruin your karma. I am an older gentler rider / driver… and I will just let the nut-jobs go. I seriously doubt I am going to change the nut jobs; I know I can change myself; and I recognize where the real solutions are here (better enforcement, better infrastructure, smart growth).

[pfunkallstar]

@baiskeli 8456 wrote:

Does cycling help that? It always seems to help me.

I used to stroll my kid to daycare and then wheel the empty stroller back home. Pretty much every time, some passerby would say “you forgot something!” Hilarious.

Bicycling doesn’t hurt or help, it is just as painful as sitting at my desk. Sadly, the most painful things are amazingly simple things like shoe tying and the occasional lifting of laundry baskets.

[baiskeli]

@pfunkallstar 8479 wrote:

Bicycling doesn’t hurt or help, it is just as painful as sitting at my desk. Sadly, the most painful things are amazingly simple things like shoe tying and the occasional lifting of laundry baskets.

Sorry to hear that. I feel your pain (really). For some reason, cycling helps me. You’re on a road bike too, right?

[vvill]

@americancyclo 8402 wrote:

I admit I bend the rules here and there, but am I wrong to think that riding against traffic on Lee Highway on wet roads is a little bit crazy?

Yep. I’ve seen it quite a bit in general though (not on wet roads in particular), I guess because it’s a downhill there people don’t like to have to go slow on the MUP there and they’re rather ride on Lee Highway against traffic…

[Author]

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