My ride last night

On my regular route to the town beach, figuring to watch the waves
from Isabel (which turned out to be nothing special). Quite a bit
more traffic than usual at that time of night, but still not as bad as
a nice beach day during the summer.

I came to a 4-way stop and there was one car at the street on my
right. He got there significantly before I did, and was already
stopped while I was still braking, but waved me to go ahead and called
out the window to me "Go ahead". My hands were still on the brakes so
I moved my head to try to signal him and said "I've got the stop
sign", and he said thanks and then went on, just as he should have
anyway. He appeared to assume I was going to just run the stop sign,
and therefore thought he'd give me permission to do so until I made it
clear I wasn't going to do this.

Then on the way back home I got yelled at out a window for the first
time ever on this route. It looked like a college-age kid who yelled
out the passenger window something like "Hey, fag" as the car passed
me. He had a kind of self-satisfied grin on his face and I suppose he
meant it as an insult to try to get me mad, but if so, it was a pretty
weak attempt. I just ignored it and kept going.

I attribute both of these incidents to the fact that there were a LOT
of cars down at the beach to watch the waves, and many of them were
not used to seeing bikes one the roads which the locals see all the
time; they mostly treat us just like other traffic.

Definitely not up to the incidents others have described here, but
unusual for me. The only really irritating part of the ride was that
the wind shifted and strengthened while I was at the beach, so I as
riding into a mild headwind on my way to the beach (which is mostly
downhill), and into a strong one going mostly uphill on the way home.
That and the fact that the traffic was so slow along the seawall; I
had to work the brakes against pedaling to keep balancing at times,
and at one point had to unclip while a car pulled out from a parking
space. I saw a couple of bikes going the other way, one of which was
riding on the sidewalk which was thick with people, and another was
riding in the 4-ft wide space between the moving traffic and the
parked cars, neither of which I considered to be acceptable
alternatives to riding in the land with the traffic, even though I
could probably have gone faster (If I didn't hit somebody's door or
their person). Oh well...


--
Dave Kerber
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David Kerber wrote in message ...


I came to a 4-way stop and there was one car at the street on my
right. He got there significantly before I did, and was already
stopped while I was still braking, but waved me to go ahead and called
out the window to me "Go ahead". My hands were still on the brakes so
I moved my head to try to signal him and said "I've got the stop
sign", and he said thanks and then went on, just as he should have
anyway. He appeared to assume I was going to just run the stop sign,
and therefore thought he'd give me permission to do so until I made it
clear I wasn't going to do this.

I live and commute in Queens NY where this is a usual occurance. I
point to the stop sign that I have to obey and wait until the car
goes. I've noticed more frequently when I'm driving my car and waiting
for traffic at a stop sign that cars with the right of way will wave
me through. I don't know if it is a too polite thing or not but coming
to stop signs where I live can be a confusing proposition. One of the
best lessons I had when I learned to drive was to "scan the
intersection." First look for pedistrians, next look for other cars
and finally determine who has the right of way.

Andy