Spring is here!

which means many more glorious rides outdoors, a spring marathon, and maybe even some open water swims!

Unfortunately, it also means that there are a lot of drivers on the road, who - for some reason I can't figure out - are always 30 seconds late to where they need to be. And me and my bike are apparently in the way.

Today I took a nice spin out to Whytecliff Park, a ride that many who live and cycle in Vancouver are familiar with, and that I've ridden for some 7 years.

One Lexus near the park came out of a side road, blew through her stop sign, and continued her turn out of Horseshoe Bay. Meanwhile I got in touch with the back half of my saddle and was happy that I had installed new brake pads yesterday.

One Translink bus (I know!) cut me off in order to pick up his passengers. After being forced up on the sidewalk, I rolled by his open door and thanked him for the stop.

And 6 blocks from my front door, while stopped at a stop light, I heard behind me "ride on the sidewalk dumbass!" I think riding on the sidewalk is illegal, not sure though.

Now, I'll be honest: when I ride and when I drive, I don't always come to a complete stop at stop signs. But you can be sure that any liberties I take on the road are after your standard decelerations, blindspot checks, and gradual creeps to make sure that everythings good to go. And it's not like I'm out there "Critical Massing" the road - I'll usually wave drivers by after 20 or 30 second if I'm impeding their drive.

Unfortunately, if you're reading my blog, you're probably also the type of person who contends themselves if a similar manner on the road.

If you do, however, see yourself in any of the above motorists, perhaps you should take a bike out on the streets sometime. Who knows, you might become a better driver

Be careful out there

~ liquid

ps. if you haven't seen the news, one of triathlon's great athletes and one of my personal role models Jordan Rapp was in an accident yesterday. You can read about it here. My thought go out to Rappstar and Jill.