by Justin
A bit of backstory to anyone not familiar. I bike to work. I bike to school. I bike in the rain. I bike in freezing weather. I bike hills, through downtown, on bike trails and with traffic. You get the picture. As a regular bicyclist, few things piss me off as much as bicyclists who refuse to protect themselves. I don't pretend to understand why some people choose not to wear helmets. Sure I can come up with reasons, but not a single one of them makes sense if you're remotely intelligent. I have seen the result of bike accidents without helmets. Having your skull cut open will make you look far worse than any helmet possibly could. Why chance it?

But usually I just grit my teeth and watch others bike around without helmets. Today though it was rainy and almost below freezing. It was dark and I was biking through downtown and I saw a bicyclist weaving through traffic, ignoring lanes, hopping onto the sidewalk...you know the drill. Of course...no helmet. So I boiled over as he ran a red light and as I came to a stop, and as he weaved onto the opposite side of the street into the oncoming traffic lane so he could jump onto the sidewalk, I yelled at him to wear a helmet. I didn't swear, I just told him to wear a helmet. He was polite enough to flick me off. About a block further down he pulled his bike over on the sidewalk and as I biked down the street he flicked me off with both hands and walked out into traffic yelling at me and challenging me to fight. Sure, he's an idiot and he has no chance of getting to me while I'm on my bike. Particularly because of oncoming traffic which is trying to decide whether to run his indie ass over or not. I admit though that he was a bit distracting. So I'm keeping an eye on him and the road and as he turns around to walk back across the street I see it just a second too late... the SLUT tracks.

I bike along them every day, it's the only option to get out of downtown without riding in the heart of traffic flow. I'm gutsy but not suicidal. Right as Mr. Indie Ass is walking away I cross the SLUT tracks without enough cross angle, my front tire traps in the the track and down I go. Thankfully no traffic was on top of me and I was up and moving in about 5 seconds. Bodies heal, pride heals, but dammit, scratches on my brand new bike don't fucking heal!

So apparently karma tells me that I'm just supposed to let assholes be assholes and that they should learn their lesson in the ER and not on the street. Thanks karma for ripping up the end of my handlebars, scratching the pretty finish on my SLI shifters and chewing up my knee.

Oh yeah, I have a nice patch of road rash across the side of my helmet where my head slid across the pavement. Thankfully I wear my god damn helmet.

Posted on December 27, 2007 @ 3:39 PM | 8 comments

Comments:

I hear helmets make good bludgeoning weapons too, particularly if you swing them around over your head before impacting the fucking with em. It's these kind of dumbtards who stage Critical Mass (critical MESS?) every month to "make a point" and only accomplish making all cyclists look like fucking idiots. ASSHOLE. I will find him and kill him for you. I'm imagining modding my bike with knife-spokes.

By Blogger Kat, at 4:03 PM, December 27, 2007  

Hahaha, oy what a dumbass and what an unfortunate story. I'm really glad that you're okay. Damn slut tracks and non-helmet wearers. I'm right there with you on giving eye daggers to stupid ppl who don't wear helmets. Good for you for saying something tho. And yeah, Critical Mass has a good cause, but a shitty way of making their point made.

Welp, we still need organ donors, so as long as there is a fresh supply of non-helmet wearers, transplantees around the world, rejoice!

By Anonymous Rachel, at 11:49 AM, December 28, 2007  

eek! road-biking's cool and all, but is it worth potentially dying for? just think: for every idiot like that guy you describe who's on a bike, there are 10 behind the wheel not paying attention to you, just ready to plow you over.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:42 PM, December 28, 2007  

That asshole was probably the same guy that did a 2-lane left-hand turn, right in front of me and my car, as I went through a green light last week. I do wish it was he that went down on the slut tracks, and not you.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:47 PM, December 28, 2007  

Road biking is cool? Hmm, I'm not sure if I said that, god knows it wasn't cool in highschool when it was my primary mode of commuting.

I commute on bike because:

1) It's free (gas and car parking are not)
2) It's fast (I get to work in 20 minutes flat)
3) It's healthy (I get ~45 minutes of moderate/intense exercise daily)

You're right, it's not safe. But neither is driving. Is one necessarily safer than the other? Sure, if I get hit by a car I'm in trouble, but I do my best to protect myself.

When risk is moderate I generally cannot justify not doing an activity simply because I might be injured. I mountain climb, I rock climb, I scuba dive. Living is about mitigating risk. You take your necessary safety precautions and do your best. You do the same thing when you get in your car.

As a little tidbit of information compiled by national insurance agencies...after normalizing for contact hours, you are still 1.8x more likely to die in a car than on a bike.

By Blogger Justin, at 11:51 PM, December 28, 2007  

The cycling is indeed the right thing to do, but I just let other cyclists do what they want.

I do wear a helmet when I cycle to work but it's my choice.

By Blogger running42k, at 4:12 AM, December 31, 2007  

haha, i agree with rachel. it's darwin in action! yay for transplants! on the other hand, what if that asshole just injures himself to the point of being a veg in some hospital, and you and i as joe and jane taxpayer possibly get to pay for his care for the next 80 years?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:59 PM, January 01, 2008  

Amusingly enough...as a nurse, if they end up in a hospital bed it's still my problem. Doh!

By Blogger Justin, at 5:05 PM, January 02, 2008  

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