Wednesday 29 August 2018

Side Story: The drivers of Charlottetown

While negotiating my way through Charlottetown, I had a number of encounters with poor or clueless drivers that I felt warranted its own post.

As I'm approaching an intersection, I go into the left turn lane. I see a woman approaching with her right turn indicator on. As she has the right of way, I begin slowing down.
Then I see her staring me down with a mixture of confusion and panic and begin to worry.
Not wanting to miss the light or come to a complete stop, I begin frantically waving her on and mouthing "Go, Go, Go".
She moves forward two feet into the intersection. Stops.
At this point, I'm almost at a complete stop. Still waving her on.
She gives me a little wave. Beckoning me forward.
Rolling my eyes, I begin to make my turn.
She looks to the right, begins turning again, looks up, sees me coming, jumps a foot in the air and slams on her brakes.
I also slam on my brakes. Increase the tempo of my wave to furious levels.
She finally turns, I turn.

Minutes later, I'm cycling down a different road.
Different woman drives up behind me. As she goes by we make eye contact and then go abouy piloting our respective vehicles.
About 5 seconds later, she executes a hard right hand turn, no blinker, no slowing down.
I brake as hard as possible and dodge out into the vehicle lane. Luckily no one was coming.
As she pulls into a parking spot, I consider chasing her down and yelling at her but it seems like too much effort.

And finally, I am just leaving Charlottetown on the Trans Canada.
There is a lot of traffic, and the shoulder isn't too wide, but it's nothing I haven't encountered dozens of times.
Now, let me preface this by saying, I could have been about 8 inches farther over. But I was well within the white line, holding a straight line of travel, and the other 100 vehicles that passed leading up to this incident had no problems with me.
So, as I cycle along I hear a city bus coming up behind me. No problem, I've been passed by dozens of city buses on this trip.
But then he goes by.
Closely.
Like, 2 inches or less from hitting my rear panniers. If I stuck my elbow out or scratched my back as he approached he would have smashed right into my arm.
I stop peddaling for a second. Then collect myself and wave angrily at him/her.
They keep driving and pull away from me.
So I pull over a little ways down the road where there's a wider shoulder, look up the number for the bus company and report it.
Unfortunately, the only details I can give are time and place. And with no video evidence, it's unlikely the driver will even get a slap on the wrist over it.
This is just the reality of cycling though. Sooner or later you will encounter that one driver who doesn't notice you or doesn't care.

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