Freak Out Friday: That's my lane

Let me all welcome you to a new segment of my blog called Freak Out Friday. This is where I will go on a rant about whatever is bothering be, it may about running or it may be about whatever is on my mind that day. This is no holds barred, I may offend some people and some people may agree with me. I am only stating my opinion, you do not have to agree with me in fact I would love to hear the other side of my rants so some back and forth bickering is always accepted.

Today we are talking bicyclist. I am all in favor of saving our mother planet earth, so when I see a person riding a bike to work I respect them. Now here is what my problem is with certain bike riders. Notice I say certain because this is not true of all of them. Here is a scenario to picture in your head: you are on your way to work. You look down at the dashboard clock and realize you are cutting it pretty close. Now you are sweating and thinking of every excuse in the book just in case you are late. “Sorry I am late there was an accident.” “There was a fire and I happened to be the first person to drive by and I had to stop and I saved everyone, I left though before the news got there, in fact you probably won’t see it on the news.” In your mind you’re thinking please just let me get there on time. Everything is going good until your come up on to some traffic and realize it is moving at a snail’s pace. You can’t make out what is holding traffic back, but you know something is moving slow enough to keep the traffic moving but just about 20 miles short of the speed limit. After admitting defeat and knowing you are going to be late to work you notice traffic is going around whatever it was holding up traffic. As you approach the “thing” you look over and see a person on a bike riding down the middle of lane going 10 mph in a 35 zone. You wait till there is no oncoming traffic and you pass the person. The rest of your ride is smooth sailing but you are two minutes late, forcing you to walk into work and say “Sorry I shit myself and had to go back home and change my underwear.” Okay maybe that excuse isn’t the best but you get the idea.

As a runner I am constantly sharing the road with motor vehicles. I run toward oncoming traffic and if I am in their lane when they are approaching I jump up onto the sidewalk until it is safe to jump back into the street. I understand that even though I can be in the street running, it is easier for me to move then it is for a car to switch lanes. In Pittsburgh one thing we are seeing more and more of is the bike lane. I am all in favor of the bike lane, it keeps the biker out of traffic and as a runner I just assume that is for me as well. In downtown Pittsburgh they have even taken a lane away from traffic and put in a 2 lane road for the bikes. The picture below is the basic concept of what it looks like.

A lot of people are bitching up a storm about this, but I am all for it. Bikers should be able to feel safe while driving around town and this just does that. The problem is when there is no bike lane, the street I work on is about 1 mile outside of downtown and there is no bike lane. Traffic is very heavy and both cars and bikers use it to get to work. Every day as I sit at my desk I watch at least 2 or 3 bikers riding the middle of the lane holding traffic up. If they move to the right cars can still go around and traffic would flow steady. I hear bikers bitching saying they deserve the same amount of road as the cars. No problem by me, but you better be able to get the bike to do the speed limit. You want the same rules of the road then you damn well better respect them. How is it every day when I am behind one these ass monkeys they are taking up the whole lane like they are a car, but as soon as we come to a red light this fool goes through like the rules suddenly changed? Ah ah my spandex wearing friend last time I checked red light meant stop and a stop sign meant you stop for a 3 second count(unless in Pittsburgh then we just pause and coast through). All I am saying is if you aren’t willing to move to your right to let traffic by, then your ass should be just as miserable as the rest of us who have to sit in traffic and at lights. Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate all bikers. There are more bikers that follow the rules and respect the cars than the ones who don’t. If you are one of the people who don’t move or think you’re special because you can weave in and out of traffic without a care in the world then there is a good chance me and you have had some words. You’re lucky my window was up and you couldn’t hear what I was saying though.