Friday, October 26, 2007

Stupid Drivers!

Yesterday, I was biking home when this stupid driver made a left turn right in front of me. I squeezed my brakes, but I still hit him. Not that hard though. I stumbled onto the ground, but the driver just took off instead of stopping to see if I was okay. Now, I wish I hit his white Acura TL hard enough to damage it. I can't believe he didn't have the decency to even check if I wasn't hurt or not. What an animal! He looked like a Chicano in his mid to late 30's. He shouldn't have even made a left turn in front of me.

Drivers should be more careful when making left turns and should be especially careful around cyclists. It seems that drivers don't accurately measure the speed I'm approaching them at. Either that or they drive carelessly. I've got to come up with a way to make myself more visible. Maybe I should bike in the middle of the road. If I do that, then I get honked at by other stupid drivers.

There was another time when a stupid young bratty girl just made a left turn without slowing down. I hit her minivan and fell off my bike. My legs were bleeding, but she didn't care. She and the stupid gangbanger-type teens in her minivan actually blamed me for speeding up! They made all sorts of excuses. I should have called the cops, but I didn't because I didn't want to wait around for them to show up. I had places to go to that day.

Another time, an evil driver tried to intimidate me by not stopping before he made a right hand turn into my lane. He sees me coming, yet he keeps creeping up. I yelled at him for being a jerk, and he tried to run me over. If I didn't move to the next lane, he seriously could have hit me. He just kept speeding up towards me aiming to hit me. That guy was a serious criminal. I wish I got his license plate.

Why are drivers so damn impatient with cyclists. They honk at me instead of giving me enough space. They don't know how to share the road like they're supposed to. They don't think that bikes should be on the road. And when they pass me, they don't give me enough space and just pass me by a couple inches driving 60 miles an hour sometimes. I should take up the whole lane if I don't feel it's safe for them to pass me. Sometimes, the lane is narrow or the right side of the lane has debris in it.

Also, why do drivers cut in line on the freeways?! People don't cut in line in other places. I pre-merge on to the lane I'm supposed to be in to get on the freeway. The lane is backed up for a mile or so. I'm stuck in stop and go traffic for about 20 minutes. I see all these other sneaky cars just cut in line at the last second when I've been waiting for 20 minutes or so. There should be a law against that. It's unsafe and it's line-cutting. One of the worst places is on the 110 North to the 5 North connector. The 110 Freeway to Pasadena is one of the worst designed freeways ever. I guess because it's really old. The off-ramps and on-ramps are like 20 feet long. I can't believe there aren't more accidents there than there already are. Drivers have to merge on to the freeway with less than 40 feet to reach freeway speeds of 60 miles an hour.

On a lighter note, I remember a joke George Carlin made about other drivers. He said that whenever you see a slower driver than you, you yell out, "He's an idiot!" Whenever you see a driver that's faster than you, you yell out, "What a maniac!"

6 comments:

Billy said...

My goodness! Please be careful! I wish I could bike to work. But my line of work causes me to be in different parts of the city throughout the day. I wouldn't get any work accomplished. Those jerk drivers should be ticketed. You would think the governing city officials would make special rights for bikers, especially since they help the environment so much.

David Kim said...

If it's close by, you can get there faster by biking than being stuck in traffic. I guess it depends on where you are. Plus, you wouldn't want to arrive sweaty. I still haven't figured out a good way to bike to court, so I drive on those days.

Portia said...

Rude drivers can be infuriating. It's just insane to be driving aggressively around bikers... some people don't even want to share the road with motorcycles. I'm glad you keep it up anyway. Have fun & be safe ...I hope others will be too:)

David Kim said...

I'm a hardcore cyclist. I even bike to my bike riding events. I just hope everyone drives more safely and road rage less.

MiYon said...

Sorry for being such a sucky friend. LOL Things have been hectic around here with trying to sell the house, the designer gig, and now we find out that hubs will be leaving for TX the first week of December. So here I'll be stuck in Sh** Falls, SD all winter. Yuck. lol

I'll try to stop by more often, David!!

I don't know why drivers are such a**holes. I can't believe that person didn't care if you were all right or now. I would be crying from feeling so bad if I hit someone on a bike (or anyone for that matter). Boo to that jerk who hit you!

David Kim said...

MiYon,

Welcome back! I understand things have been really busy for you.

I'm sorry to hear that you and your husband will be in different states during the winter. Hopefully, you'll be back together real soon. Try to stay warm.

Every day is a struggle to survive on the streets of L.A.