mimitabby
08-29-2007, 12:00 PM
I don't usually post his stuff, but you have to read this!
HOT DANG!!!!! WHAT A COMMUTE!.
Morning commute (story time):
I'm riding up Third Avenue downtown Seattle. It is between 6:30 and 7:00 am. I can ride about 2 blocks at a time, being stopped regularly by red lights no matter how fast I ride, so I don't get myself all sweated up on this part of my morning commute. Slightly uphill, two lanes northbound, 2 southbound. Buses predominate, and cars are prohibited between 6 and 9 am. Seattle Police Dept has 3 or 4 motorcycle cops patrolling every morning issuing tickets to drivers. So here I am riding along 10-12 mph, just cruising along, enjoying the blue skies, the seagulls and pigeons, the morning sounds and smells and there's a woman in a little silver car that gets right on my wheel. She follows me for 2 blocks and just before the light, she zooms around me, cuts back in front of me and squeals to a stop at the crosswalk. She has her window down, smoking a cigarette. I roll up to the left side of her and say, quite calmly, "Ma'am, you know they're issuing tickets to folks driving this street between 6 and 9 am. You're not supposed to be on 3rd." She's fuming. She yells back, "Well, you're only going 7 miles per hour. I've been following you for two blocks." So I move forward and position my bike again in front of her car (a LITTLE bit of a taunt here, I suppose), and the light turns. There is a bus in the right lane, so she has to wait until it pulls over to the curb to drop passengers, and we've gone nearly a block now, at 10 mph, me whistling and her steaming (or smoking). Again, she careens to the right and zooms around me, just as she goes through the intersection where the sign says "RIGHT TURN ONLY 6-9 am & 3-6 pm". And she does this right in front of a motorcycle cop who does a very nicely executed U-turn, pulls her over and as I ride past, I simply smile and wave.
Sometimes there is justice and it is meted out swiftly.
HOT DANG!!!!! WHAT A COMMUTE!.
Morning commute (story time):
I'm riding up Third Avenue downtown Seattle. It is between 6:30 and 7:00 am. I can ride about 2 blocks at a time, being stopped regularly by red lights no matter how fast I ride, so I don't get myself all sweated up on this part of my morning commute. Slightly uphill, two lanes northbound, 2 southbound. Buses predominate, and cars are prohibited between 6 and 9 am. Seattle Police Dept has 3 or 4 motorcycle cops patrolling every morning issuing tickets to drivers. So here I am riding along 10-12 mph, just cruising along, enjoying the blue skies, the seagulls and pigeons, the morning sounds and smells and there's a woman in a little silver car that gets right on my wheel. She follows me for 2 blocks and just before the light, she zooms around me, cuts back in front of me and squeals to a stop at the crosswalk. She has her window down, smoking a cigarette. I roll up to the left side of her and say, quite calmly, "Ma'am, you know they're issuing tickets to folks driving this street between 6 and 9 am. You're not supposed to be on 3rd." She's fuming. She yells back, "Well, you're only going 7 miles per hour. I've been following you for two blocks." So I move forward and position my bike again in front of her car (a LITTLE bit of a taunt here, I suppose), and the light turns. There is a bus in the right lane, so she has to wait until it pulls over to the curb to drop passengers, and we've gone nearly a block now, at 10 mph, me whistling and her steaming (or smoking). Again, she careens to the right and zooms around me, just as she goes through the intersection where the sign says "RIGHT TURN ONLY 6-9 am & 3-6 pm". And she does this right in front of a motorcycle cop who does a very nicely executed U-turn, pulls her over and as I ride past, I simply smile and wave.
Sometimes there is justice and it is meted out swiftly.