My motorcycle brothers, I know we don’t always see eye to eye and some of  you look down on the bicycles on the road with you due to our many differences (mainly our lack of engine).  Despite our differences, the motorcycle community has made great strides in making the roadways safer for 2-wheeled vehicles.  Sure those efforts have been meant for motorcycles but anytime a driver looks twice, it’s a huge win for everyone on the road including all vehicles.

I post about a near miss today with a slight chuckle.  I know this situation is the exception and not the rule but the irony is too funny to ignore.   Last week I rolled up to a red light along side a large black SUV, I believe it was a Suburban, on a stretch of road that is straight with traffic lights every other block or so.  I was (and always am) happy to see that the woman driving the SUV was sporting a “Motorcycles Are Everywhere” bumper sticker and immediately was more comfortable sharing the road with her.  I rolled up right next to her literally 3 feet to her right as we both sat and waited for the light to turn green.  With a car parked right up to the corner, I was waiting there within a few inches of her passenger side mirror, so close that I could have read you the text of the name badge on her waist.

As the saying goes, when you “assume” you make and “ASS” out of “U” and “ME” and on a bike you can get yourself hurt!  As traffic moved along to the next light, never topping 25 mph, I was glad to see the light was green and going to stay that way.  I proceeded on my merry way until a big black wall of suburban was thrust right in front of me at the intersection.  It was a nightmare riding situation because the suburban hadn’t pulled all the way past me where I could see the turn signal and took a hard right but then had to stop short because (surprise, surprise) there was more traffic there.  I was able to come to a sliding stop with the only contact being my hand and elbow as I slid up against the suburban.  I was all set to brush off the incident and give myself a mental warning for not bein careful enough.  Generally, if I can’t see the signal lights, I assume the vehicle is going to turn. But in this case, I refuse to shoulder any blame especially when I finally got myself situated and heading on my way and saw that there hadn’t been a turn signal used anyway.  Basically, this lady was a “bike bomb”!  She lulled me to sleep with her advertised awareness and proclamation of “Looking twice, to save a life”, eye contact and sitting at a red light together then threw the “right cross” at the next traffic light to go for the knock out.

I have to appreciate the hustle and I’m confident that she will get quite a few knock outs and, if she really works at it, a few kills under her belt before her career is over.

But to her I say, “well played ma’am.  But you didn’t realize I play the Patriots bend don’t break defense of biking.  While not impressive or flashy, it comes up big when necessary and wins championships.”