Friday, January 25, 2008

I hate cars and most people who drive them

Last night while riding I came close to getting drilled by a car, waayyyy too close! Close enough that I just said "Screw it" and went straight home. Sometimes I just don't need this. Nearly everyone I ride with has been hit by a car, and this is one club I'm not very eager to join.

I don't know how I can make myself any more visible. I'm positive that I am more visible at night than I am in the daytime. I have multiple tail lights, multiple head lights; I wear a reflective pullover that is bright enough to be seen from the moon. What the hell else can I do to become visible?

And everytime I have a close call the driver is of the same demographic (Sorry Mom!) - but it's a woman probably about 55 - 60. I remember when I was in high school we did this study on the aging (ageing?) driver and the coorelation between age and accidents. I don't remember much of the details (this was 15 years ago) but I do remember seeing an obvious problem with the system. Nothing much has changed either. People get old, they get slow and their vision is less concise. And they also see less detail - and to a driver most bike riders are barely a detail.

And another thing that pisses me off is that if I get hit it will be viewed by the general public (and if I generalize all of them then I will say they are all couch potato beer drinkling lethargic slobs that are so lazy that - never mind - I could go on forever here) as another stupid bike rider in the road when he shouldn't have been. Why is always the bike riders fault? Is it always a motorcycle rider's fault when someone pulls out in from of him? Hell no! Then why is a bike rider's fault when someone drills them from behind or pulls in my way?

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