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Wanna Race?

I was minding my own business Saturday afternoon during a slow-paced bicycle ride through Belleville, cruising up South Church Street toward downtown Belleville. Suddenly, a man came up alongside and offered a challenge to me.

"Wanna race?" he asked.

I really didn't want to race because my goal was simple to get some miles in at a slow- to moderate-pace. But the guy didn't take the hint.

"How far are you going?"

I still didn't want to race. Then he made me mad.

"You need to ride off some of that gut," he retorted.

All right, I do need to ride off some of that gut. You can make fun of something stupid I say or write, but the sure-fire way to hack me off is by mentioning my gut or making fun of a personal trait.

He finally took the hint. But the guy, who was riding on the left -- on the wrong side of the road -- pulled out in front of me to make a right turn onto Washington Street. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Unfortunately, the Lance Armstrong wannabe is typical of many bicycle riders I see in Belleville. Many of them are on a bicycle because they lost their driver's licences, otherwise they would be endangering cyclists and other motorists behind the wheel of a truck. They don't follow traffic laws, i.e., they ride on the wrong side of the road, they don't stop at stop signs and they don't signal turns.

Sadly, too many people don't follow the rules of the road. I'm still convinced that's a big reason many motorists hate cyclists so much.

Roger 0 comments 2:47 PM