I have addressed this issue in the past and will likely discuss is many times before my time is up but it’s as true today as it was 6 months/years ago.  The only difference is now I can see that everyone using the roads deals with some serious self loathing.  Whether you know it or not, it’s true!

I’ve tried to explain the hypocrisy that is my attitude when I bike versus drive.  Plain and simple, when I’m on my bike I hate drivers and when I’m driving I hate bikers.  This apparent contradiction may be confusing to some but if you think about it, we all fall into this category in some way.

An example that works for all people, who have ever driven, is your pedestrian self versus your driving self.  Every single one of us has cursed (externally or internally) the stupidity of some idiot driver when we have been trying to cross the street at some point in our lives.  Whether that driver was being a jerk and buzzed through a cross walk or just oblivious and almost ran you over leaving the mall parking  lot, it is all the same to you and you were PISSED!!  In reality, you were only cursing out your driving self!

We have all been that jerk driver who has blown through a cross walk.  You can try to fight me on this and rationalize every time you’ve done it with some top-notch excuses but to that pedestrian in the cross walk, you’re excuses are like elbows(everybody’s got ’em).  To all of you that are sure that you have never been the “oblivious driver” and now believe this post doesn’t apply to you….STOP IT, you’ve been that driver!  The fact that you won’t admit it means you have probably been that driver A LOT!

What’s the point of all this?

It’s simple.  There’s a vicious circle of self-loathing that we are all caught up in and it only serves to make everyone on the road more angry.  I’m not asking you to forgive that idiot driver that just missed you or that moron cyclist that is taking up with whole road, but instead realize that you have been and will be both of those people at some point.  Like it or not, we’re all idiots and morons in the eyes of someone else on the road.  Accept it, smile and move on.  You’ll be that much happier, I promise!