Sometimes you have these kind of days…
1 (stupid):
Two weeks ago I’m riding on a footpath, early in the morning, very relaxed, as usual just on 20", and just drinkin’ Cherry Coke. I enter an empty crossing between the houses of that street, where I have the right of way. However I always slow down, as you just never know.
All over sudden a woman comes around the corner on bicycle with VERY high speed (on the footpath, while there is a cyclepath). Despite my slow speed, and even with my experience on unicycle plus my semi-pro bicycling experience, I can’t move away for only that half a body-width out of the line she’s in. And decide to let me be hit straigth in front (catching her handlebars to take over control).
She said “sorry”, but tells me I should not ride on the footpath neither. I tell her I should, as I’m pedestrian by law. She asks wether I’m sure. I tell her that if she wants to discuss I will call out the cops.
She’s I guess about 15 years older than I am, and I tell her she’s stupid to ride this unresponsible.
What if a baby-pushcart was there? Or someone in a wheelchair? Could have become even more disabled for life!
Then she starts talking in a way implicating I should shut up because she already said sorry. In other words I’m not allowed to complain I was just hit. I loose my patience with her, and want to put that adrealine-rush she caused at the right place. But as I wont hit women, I splash the entire content of my bottle of cherry coke into her haircut that must have took her 44 years to create. Now she starts screaming like a pig, telling me I’m an idiot. The tone in her voice made me conclude the result was even much better than I could have imagened. She goes back home, I turn 180 degrees to buy myself a new bottle.
2 (dumb):
The day before yesterday I was riding at a cyclepath, entering an overtake, where I had to yield to pedestrians.
A fat man watches my unicycling, keeping me in doubt wether he will or wont cross the cyclepath. It looks like he wont, so I ride on. So far so good, but…
When I passed him he keeps watching me, while he starts crossing the cyclepath… and he got hit by the bicyclist behind me.
But as the man was very fat and heavy, the bicyclist smacks to the ground! with an awfull sound.
In the Netherlands pedestrian are very protected by law. The worst thing you can do is making a crash at such a overtake.
Cause even if a pedestrian walked trough a red light there, it will be your mistake.
As I was’nt to blame (-she did’nt yield to the pedestrian-), I rather stayed out of any conversation, and as I saw that others took care of her already, I made my way out of there.
3 (wierd):
Today I was entering a crossing. The cycle-traffic-light for straight on is green, while the car-traffic-light for right is green as well (which means always a tricky situation). The car driver -who has to give way to me- is paying too much attention to me as unicyclist, he does’nt look in font, the road is wet, his car obvious has no ABS, and so he hits the car in front of him. As the crossing was busy… both drivers just continued their (different) ways without even stopping. Just like me.
Now the month is only half-way, but I do hope to always stay out of these kind of things.
