Two post's in a week! Don't get used to it, I just happen to be home with the flu and this blog is keeping me busy. Below is a letter to the editor that my buddy John wrote regarding an incident with an ignorant driver. People think it's funny to "brush" a cyclist or beep for kicks while they're riding. Sometimes they will throw things out the window! What the knucklehead doesn't realize is that when it startles the rider they can easily get sucked under the car, the rest is history. I experience someone yelling at me to get off the road twice a week, its sad, real sad. Thankfully the State of Massachusetts along with many others made this kind of behavior a felony because too many cyclist have been severely injured or killed.
Some parts of the law state that cyclists are allowed to ride two abreast on major roads. In addition automobiles have to provide a minimum of 3 feet between them and the cyclist and are only allowed to pass when it is safe. So when someone thinks its funny with their buddy's to see how close they can get and god forbid they clip them, it's now a felony! Local law enforcement is being sent to bicycle awareness classes as we speak. Thank god , anytime I've been swerved at and a police officer happens to be in the area, I won't get the usual ,"what do you want me to do."
Read the story below:
Share the road, not your Slurpee
To the editor:
As I was rolling into Newburyport down Water Street Sunday afternoon with my girlfriend freshly soaked off the PI Turnpike, it struck me! No, not my ambition to compete in this year's Tour de France, but a king-size Slurpee cup, courtesy of a big blue SUV with Mass. plates! That's right, it hit me like a clap of lightning at point-blank range via the smoking teenage copilot in the SUV. He hung out the window like a chimpanzee and clocked me, apparently just for his amusement.More stunned than hurt, thanks to my helmet, I rode alongside the vehicle for a good half mile. Considering that I was traveling the same speed as the flow of traffic, it was not difficult to stay with the offenders and plead for them to pull over. However, they chose to keep on truckin', apparently having no real bone to pick with me, and ignore my request to reason and share the road. With all of my adrenaline pumping, I failed to even get the litterbug's license plate number. I could only hope that someone in the line of traffic behind me who witnessed my plight — and perhaps had an inkling of the rules of the road — would report the incident. Unfortunately, no officer of the law or a Good Samaritan was in sight!
As we cyclists prepare for another busy spring, summer and fall on the roads, let this be a warning to you that to some drivers, we are mere asteroids in the field on their quest to grab another Slurpee for fire!
JON BERNHARDNewburyport
Some parts of the law state that cyclists are allowed to ride two abreast on major roads. In addition automobiles have to provide a minimum of 3 feet between them and the cyclist and are only allowed to pass when it is safe. So when someone thinks its funny with their buddy's to see how close they can get and god forbid they clip them, it's now a felony! Local law enforcement is being sent to bicycle awareness classes as we speak. Thank god , anytime I've been swerved at and a police officer happens to be in the area, I won't get the usual ,"what do you want me to do."
Read the story below:
Share the road, not your Slurpee
To the editor:
As I was rolling into Newburyport down Water Street Sunday afternoon with my girlfriend freshly soaked off the PI Turnpike, it struck me! No, not my ambition to compete in this year's Tour de France, but a king-size Slurpee cup, courtesy of a big blue SUV with Mass. plates! That's right, it hit me like a clap of lightning at point-blank range via the smoking teenage copilot in the SUV. He hung out the window like a chimpanzee and clocked me, apparently just for his amusement.More stunned than hurt, thanks to my helmet, I rode alongside the vehicle for a good half mile. Considering that I was traveling the same speed as the flow of traffic, it was not difficult to stay with the offenders and plead for them to pull over. However, they chose to keep on truckin', apparently having no real bone to pick with me, and ignore my request to reason and share the road. With all of my adrenaline pumping, I failed to even get the litterbug's license plate number. I could only hope that someone in the line of traffic behind me who witnessed my plight — and perhaps had an inkling of the rules of the road — would report the incident. Unfortunately, no officer of the law or a Good Samaritan was in sight!
As we cyclists prepare for another busy spring, summer and fall on the roads, let this be a warning to you that to some drivers, we are mere asteroids in the field on their quest to grab another Slurpee for fire!
JON BERNHARDNewburyport
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