Nice ride this morning, perfect temp, good times, and Wednesdays is group ride morning with work mates.
Then, we happened upon a jerk! Now, I have 3 bikes - I have a commuter with panniers, etc, if I'm straight bike commuting; I also have a road bike that I ride when we do group rides, as I will often bring a week's worth of clothes to work on Mondays and since we have lockers, I don't have to bring much as it's already at the office. So, here the three of us are, cruising up the road, single file, before 7am (before "rush hour"), on a nice, wide, 4 lane road - one that doesn't see a lot of traffic, especially going north like we were (the freeway is to the south), AND even though it's my road bike, I STILL have a light on the back. We're cruising pretty good due to the hills, 30+mph (speed limit is 35 there), and we pass a guy on a mountain bike who's riding on the sidewalk, so it's not like we "passed" him or pushed him into the curb - he was never in the street. We get stopped a signal, and he catches up to us, and yells at us for riding in the street! At first, I thought he was just commenting as though he wasn't comfortable riding in the street, as he said "I can't believe you guys are riding in the street". Then he proceeds to tell us that we need to be more considerate of everyone else, that it's "rush hour", look at all the cars around us (we were at a signal!!!), and he can't believe how inconsiderate we are riding in the street at this time of day. We had NO issues with cars at all, as traffic wasnt bad at all, we werent blocking any cars, and no one had to wait for us - I purposefully plan our routes to avoid the major thoroughfares especially during high traffic hours. This, coming from a guy riding on the sidewalk, darting out into the street unexpectedly as he crosses the street from one sidewalk to the other, and WE'RE inconsiderate? He was totally mad that we were riding in the road - no other reason, like we shouldn't be because that's where cars go especially, at that time of day. God forbid he infringe upon pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk, or just dart into the street as he crossed.
It just bugged the heck out of me, as I commute several days a week by bike, usually on a more heavily travelled, 2 lane road (with bike lanes), and I totally feel like this jerk had something against road bikes; like he was the urban commuter and we were those jerks that give cyclists a bad name. I swear, if I were on my commuter with panniers, and not wearing a jersey, he wouldn't have said anything to me - just a case of cycling prejudice!!!!
And, that's my rant for the day!