I Wish I Was A Pothole

Roger’s World – Monday April 5, 2010

Why a pothole?

Easy answer, drivers go out of their way to avoid them, and as a cyclist I’d like them to treat me the same way.

This past 4-5 days had some incredible riding weather and I hope you all got out there to take advantage. Tons of people around the GTA sure did, and with the amount of riders I saw out on the roads it felt like a typical summer day.

Hopefully, you did not have any run-ins with any drivers, and if you did I believe the best way to act is to be overly courteous – kind of the “pay it forward” concept. You treat them with kindness – no matter what – and maybe their next encounter with a cyclist down the road will be much better. This concept will help everyone.

A beep of the horn makes me respond with a wave and not a finger. I wave an acknowledgement of thanks to cars that give me a wide berth or let me go first at an intersection, etc. It does not pay to be confrontational. It is not hard to figure out that in a battle with a car you will lose.

Case in point. A group I was riding with pulled over to help a rider in need. Some woman in her brand new SUV stopped alongside us not to offer help but to scold us for stopping at the side of the road on top of a hill. We were shocked (so was the motorist behind her) and as much as we were tempted to offer a negative response and maybe a snot rocket or two, we kept our composure and soon she was off on her way – hopefully realizing the ridiculousness of her actions.

One nutty driver in 4-5 days is pretty good though, but for all of us that use the roads to get in our training please heed my advice. But also don’t act a bunch of goofballs out there. We still do need to observe the rules of the road. Sharing the road goes both ways.

And while in some circumstances it might be handy/but impractical for us to carry a rocket launcher (thought inspired by Bruce Cockburn’s 1984 song), I still choose to be non-confrontational and maybe I will create a bike shirt that has a logo of a giant hole and the following written on the back in bold lettering “I AM A POTHOLE. STEER CLEAR!”

Til next week

Roger