Driver comments

Over the years, I've begun to train myself to ignore the unintelligible (and often unintelligent) ululations that emanate from the windows of passing motor vehicles. I get such comments from far less than one percent of the motorists who pass me, after all, as they are easily classified as "territorial noise."

To explain that concept, I'll put forth a word picture: When walking along the neighborhood street, a dog barks at me from behind his or her fence. I'm not hurting the dog, I'm not a threat to the dog in any real way--I'm on shared public space. The dog, not having the same understanding of property lines as a human, is still at some level sounding a warning, both to me to not come closer to his space and to his pack (if his pack is only his human caretaker) that someone is close.

It doesn't matter that I am on shared public space--the dog barks. It doesn't matter that I have no intention of invading the dog's space as I understand it to be, the dog barks.

Same thing with most of the very few motorists who yell silly stuff out their windows as they pass me. I already got what I wanted from them--a more-or-less safe pass (although I admit I could do without the extra drama and noise). They have already proven that I was seen in time that they could avoid hitting me.

So, the message I choose to receive often differs from the message these motorists think they are conveying. I hear it as the motorist saying, "I'm happy for you to consider me an even bigger jerk than I think you are for daring to bicycle instead of hewing to the status quo and driving a car!" Part of this is that I rarely hear more than one syllable out of whatever the motorist is yelling, due to the dynamics of sound and background noise and such.

Even so, every now and again I get to hear enough syllables to make some sense of what the motorist said, and I wonder whether the motorist thought through his or her comment at all (lending credence to the idea that it's just territorial noise).

Two sort-of recent examples:

I was cycling through Seneca Park one day, en route to a job site in the Highlands area. I was a hundred yards or so from the four-way stop sign-controlled intersection near Big Rock. There is a marked shoulder of some width on each side of the road, and there are often folks running or walking in that shoulder area. A guy in a white pickup truck blew his horn as he approached me from behind, and opened his power window on the passenger side to tell me that "there is a lane over there for you!" while pointing at this shoulder.

Of course, he was wrong on several points: A) it is a marked shoulder, not a lane. As such, I *may* use it, at my discretion, under KRS or KAR (I'd find the exact citation, but it's not the point), but I am not required to use it. B) That it was paved space to the right of a solid line, just as many bike lanes are marked elsewhere in town, does not make it a bike lane. C) Even if it WAS a bike lane, and thus subject to 601 KAR 14:020 (9)(2), there are many reasons why it would not be feasible for me to use it as such--at least thirty reasons ran by during the next five minutes, those reasons being human beings who were using the shoulder as a firm place to run rather than be in the traffic lane.

His language confirmed that my reception of the message as indicated above was spot on.

The other happened one morning, as I was riding to another job site in the Highlands area. I was on Lexington Road, having just turned off Shelbyville Road (or is it Frankfort Avenue there?), heading toward town. A guy in a sedan lowered his power window to helpfully let me know that it was rush hour.

How about that? What about it being rush hour changes any of the rules for polite behavior? What about it being rush hour (ignoring for the moment the oxymoronic nature of the expression, given that traffic so often moves more slowly during peak travel hours) changes whether I have reason to ride my bicycle to get where I am going?

And what of this issue of courtesy? Those who value themselves over all other road users tell me that a cyclist would be more courteous to get out of the way of faster, presumably more legitimate traffic. They ignore something that is pretty basic to the human experience: the principle of first-come, first-served.

I was there first, it's my turn to use the shared public space in a legal and legitimate manner. Just as you wait in line at the bank or at the grocery checkout lane, your turn at that piece of roadway will come, and you may then use the road in a law-abiding manner, just as I have. It shows amazing hubris to think that because my turn takes a few seconds more than yours, you should go first despite that you arrived after I did. THAT is rudeness.

Oh, and because I sometimes enjoy numbers, this is post 579 for this blog.