Can't we all just get along?

they say hostility toward cyclists is increasing. i'm not sure i've experienced the same thing here. i have had some run-ins with cars, even some "verbal interaction" over the years, but i haven't noticed it to be any worse this summer. in fact, the accidents i've had were with some very polite people. thirteen years ago, when a kid scooped me up on the hood of his car, it was me who came up shouting.

anyway, i've just gotten a lot of positive mileage out of keeping hyper-aware of the traffic around me and reacting to that gut feeling when i get the eerie sense that someone who is about to pull out from a cross street just looked straight through me. the same goes for when i'm entering an intersection just behind a car. if there's a left turner waiting for that car to get through the intersection, i assume they don't know i'm there. as such, i find myself putting in bigger efforts while riding through intersections. in fact, i did my best to impress that wisdom upon e today as the two of us rode our bikes to do some errands today at the library and target. we rode on the rode and i talked her through a bunch of road-safety lessons.