05-16-2018, 08:25 PM
(05-16-2018, 08:07 PM)Canard Wrote: So, I had an unpleasant experience on my bike ride home from my office in Cambridge...
I was coming North/East on Cedar, from Charles. I passed King and stopped behind about 4 cars at the light at Weber.
The light went green, and our little train proceeded through. All of the cars in front of me turned left onto Lancaster, as did I. EXCEPT!
When I turned, the car waiting on Krug decided she’d had about enough waiting, and went. She went right at me. Full bore. She saw me and just went. We locked eyes and I yelled “HEY!!!” three times at her before dropping an F-bomb and she kept going.
THEN!!!!!!
She yelled “I HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I won’t say on a public forum what I wanted to do at that point. But it’s a sunny day and I’d just had a lovely ride so that was that.
That is a pretty unpleasant experience, especially as you may have cars going on the other side of you, thus no easy escape.
Not to defend drivers, but that corner is generally one where drivers get very confused. Perhaps she did believe she had the right of way, not that it makes the experience better. The one directional stop sign seems to be difficult for people to grasp, they don't really understand WHO they're stopping for--in Europe they often have priority signs which show who yields to whom. Or perhaps she was just tired of waiting and felt that she had the right of might over a bicycle. But either way, the city really could make improvements there.
I think it was someone here who pointed out that aggressive drivers often act that way towards other cars as well, but the experience of being bullied while in a car is quite different from that of being bullied while on a bike.
I very much like the few driver training programs (usually professional driver training programs) which put those professional drivers on bikes near the vehicles their training to drive.
Glad the trail is open though, weather permitting, we will be riding it this weekend. I'm impressed you bike to Cambridge daily...that's an impressive bike commute.