Bike Safety
So the other day I was riding my bike with the kids in tow in a nice new trailer. It was a wonderful day, not too warm not too cold. The kids and I went to visit my wife, Cheryl, at work. Then decided to go to marathon park. It was nice, Ben had a good time playing on the slides with the other children that were there. We headed off to shopko and I got some new sandals. On our way back from shopko, was when it got bad. I proceeded to go down 17th ave heading towards Stuart Ave and well there is no sidewalk there so I made the decision to act like I was just another vehichle on the road, I got into the left turn lane and waited for the light to turn green. Once it had, a car pulled up behind me and a unkind gentleman roles down his window and starts yelling, “GO, GO, GO, Your not a (blank)ing car.” Well I ignored him for a few seconds as I could not go at that time due to oncoming traffic, once there was enough of an that the car though he could go through he started yelling even more, stating that I should use the sidewalk, etc. This is when I started to get mad and thought I should do something about it. Well the only thing that I could think of doing at that time without getting off of my bike was to give him the finger. I calmed down and just finished going through the intersection, and he kept yelling at me after we went through the light. I was trying to figure out something I could do the rest of the way home. I decided to lookup the laws to make sure that I had done the right thing. Turns out I had, the DOT states “Bicyclists, when making your own left turn look over your left shoulder for traffic, signal your left turn and change lanes smoothly, so you are to the left side or center of the through lane by the time you reach the intersection. If a left turn lane is present, make a lane change to center of that lane. Do not move to left of that lane as left-turning motorists may cut you off.” I really hope that people start learning these laws so that when people start riding their bikes more we do not end up with more accidents or even more road rage due to drivers of cars not understanding that bicyclists are to be considered vehicles. I hope that the people reading this will go to the DOT’s website and read up a bit.
Cheryl Mathis said:
Way to represent the bikers of the world, Chris! I hope that those upset drivers find out what the law is BEFORE they hit someone and find out the hard way.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:37 pm #
Citizen Wausau » Blog Archive » Your Voice: July 14 said:
[…] And new blogger Chris Mathis – welcome Chris! – encountered a driver who does not understand the concept of sharing and really, really could use a refresher on some basic rules of the road. This exciting post […]
July 14th, 2008 at 4:19 pm #
orkmommy said:
Oh my…you gave them the bird. I can just picture you all red faced waving with the one finger! Way to go Chris!
July 24th, 2008 at 12:22 pm #