as i was riding along como avenue tonight with a solid white light on my helmet, a flashing white light on the bars, and enough flashing red lights on my back to make my bike look like a slowly rolling crime scene, i had a run-in with one of those drivers who makes you worry about the future of humanity. a minivan sat at a cross street to como on the other side of the road, and there wasn't any other traffic on that section of como other than me at the moment. as i approached the intersection of the cross street (an intersection at which i had right of way because they had a stopsign and i didn't), i noticed the van lurch a little and then hesitate. then... then! they gunned it as i was entering the intersection. i locked up my brakes as they came across the fairly wide two lanes of como and watched them drive right in front of me about a bikelength away from my front tire.
the bad news is, i was close enough to the vehicle to hear the driver yelling at me, the good news is that i wasn't able to understand him. so, i'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that somewhere in his surly tone there lived words of encouragement for getting around by human power even in the winter. yeah... i'm sure that's what he was saying. oh, i'm so uplifted.
peace,
--rt
