The Left Turn

Andy Fisher came over today to work on a site of mine. On our way to lunch, we passed an SUV which had slowed in the right lane as it waited for a biker to ride around a parked car. While the biker was riding around a parked car and using the right lane, the SUV honked at the rider with a long "I'm irritated at you!" honk.

Making me instantly irritated at the driver.

Bikes and their riders are considered full vehicles in California. If they want to ride down the middle of the lane, they are legally allowed to do so. If they're riding slowly, find, move around the bike and pass, but don't honk at them. Good lord, honking is probably just going to startle the biker, possibly leading to an accident. Regardless, idiot driver, you should realize YOU'RE IN A 3 TON VEHICLE. The worst the biker can do to you is dent your fender. YOU CAN KILL THE BIKER.

The event reminded me of another driver being an asshole around a biker, only I was the biker in the other incident. My roommate at the time, Kristi McAdams, and I were waiting at a light to turn left across a fairly big road, at least three lanes going the other directions. When the arrow turned green, we hopped up on our bikes and started biking left.

Apparently we weren't fast enough in our biking, though, because the idiot Asian woman driver pulled between the two of us, nearly hitting both of us on either side of her car before accelerating away down the street. I was immediately stunned. Could someone have really just done that? I was then angry. I knew there were two stop signs and a stop light on the street. I knew she'd have to stop. I took off after her, to the cries of Kristi yelling "No!"

Well, nearly injuring two bikers with her recklessness wasn't enough for the idiot driver. She also ran both stop signs without slowing. She was caught, however, by the red light at the end of the street, which is where I caught her, too.

I rolled around to the front of her car, slammed my hands on her hood and yelled, "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!" I then continued for a short while, yelling at her, accentuating my points with slams on her hood, until my anger exhausted itself. I have no idea if she understood how much of an idiot she was, or if she merely went away thinking, "Wow, bikers are morons. I should run over more of them."