c-3po, r2-d2, krs1, xy-3143



I am not in the habit of memorizing license plates
sure I look at them
there is always a glance... it can be a warning... it can be a reminder...
but can it be a way to categorize the assholes....


hmmm...
people with vanity plates... assholes as a whole?
no... no group can so easily be pigeonholed... I am sure that there has to be one Hummer owner who is not a complete cigar smoking asshole... there has to be... I have not met one... actually... I have never met a Hummer owner... I just assume that they are assholes... because they always look like assholes... in or out of their H2s

so... maybe more people with vanity plates are assholes than people with vanity plates who are not assholes...
today I did not have a vanity plate conflict
actually... I did not have too much conflict
there was the usual car to bike combat... but no real conflict
there was the usual combat with some drivers with vanity plates... but no confrontations

took a quick out and back on Beach Drive on the geared Surly Karate Monkey
took if from Mount Pleasant out to Rockville where it dead ends at Twinbrook and then turned it around reversing my trajectory back home

it was late afternoon... pre-Rush Hour... but still pretty hectic
my pace was not especially fast... yet I was not snailing along all that slowly
in my short journey of a distance that I do not know with a duration I can only roughly guesstimate I can say that less people are obnoxious assholes behind the wheel than are assholes
it is true... not each and every person behind the wheel is a menace
but... and this is a big butt... but... there are enough assholes who are obvious assholes that they gather my attention and glaze over the almost appropriate behavior of others

the resentment is evident...
there are cars that pass so fast and so close... so very very close
there are those that pass fast with decent space but quickly take the lane right in front of me
then there are those that take their post pass behavior so far as to block the path all the way to the right when I catch them

today on my pre-Rush Hour ride down Beach Drive past the Moron Temple on winding towards Rockville and back I had the pleasure of not only being obnoxiously fast but having the pleasure of passing so many of these drivers back... proving that their driving style is not only obnoxious but ineffective
one issue... the pass and pass back... can raise the level of resentment in the already resentful drivers

it is amazing how aggressive drivers can be...
intentionally obnoxious and dangerous... and also unintentionally dangerous...

the drivers that block the right side of the lane when I approach scare me such that I fear that they may open their car door when I am forced to pass on the left

so many fast and close passes by the same cars
only to be passed by me again
sure... yes... sure many of them passed me again... but their fast and aggressive passed did not get them anywhere any faster... these actions did nothing more than put my life at risk... and well... build the wall between us even higher
when will they learn... what will teach them?
what will calm their actions and alter their behavior?

yesterday on my way home I was chatting with a commuter on a road bike
this man said how he rides all the way to the right to avoid building the resentment
and of course I simplify and paraphrase
this is not my philosophy
I take the right side of the lane
I do not hug the shoulder
I do not ride in the drain
I do not pedal through the broken glass and over the rain grates
I ride on the road
to the right side
there is not room within the lane for a car to pass me safely
so... I make it known... the safe pass is the pass that breaks the double yellow line

yet... even with no on coming traffic
for some reason some cars try to see if they can still make the pass with both of us in the same lane
sorry... SHARE THE ROAD does not mean SHARE THE LANE
and well... being in a car does not increase a user's right to the road
I have a full right to the road and I should have a right to my safety
yet somehow this goes unseen by so many

I could go on
perhaps I should go on
but now I must assist in putting the kids to bed

one thing I try to remember when on the bike
the people in cars are assholes not only to bicyclists
but to other people in cars
it is not like they are directing this aggression solely at the cyclist
they are aggressive and obnoxious to any and all who enter their sphere

wish I could proof this
but need to get on with my day