Seriously, what is wrong with people?

Image by carljohnson via Flickr

I’ve tried to take the stoic approach. I’ve tried to ignore people and go on with my life. I’ve tried not to let people ruin my day. But enough’s enough.

Imagine walking down the street, just like you might do on any day. But 7% of the times you go out for a walk, someone you don’t know randomly throws something at you. A cup of ice, a water bottle, who knows what. You’re walking along, and someone throws something at you. We wouldn’t put up with that for long.

Imagine driving down the street, just like you might do on any day. But 7% of the times you go out for a drive, someone chucks something at your car. You would think you were living in Palestine. We wouldn’t put up with that for long.

Now imagine riding your bike along our roads. By my very conservative calculations, 7% of the times I go out for a bike ride, someone I don’t know decides to throw something at me. Usually they miss, sometimes they hit. Luckily, I’m a very experienced rider, so unless it hits me hard enough to throw me off my bike, I’m not going to lose my line because of a thrown object. Even MORE often, someone decides to come up behind me or alongside me and either scream at the top of their lungs or lay on the horn — and that’s often even more of a surprise, and it’s hard not to be startled. I’m not sure when it became funny to try to hurt or kill people you don’t know, to see if you could make two girls fatherless, and I’m not sure why it’s only okay when the object is on a bicycle. No one would put up with this if it were happening to their cars — there would be unbelievable outrage. But to bikes? Well, what’s the problem?

I can nearly ALWAYS get the license number. I can often chase people down — I’ve successfully caught three cars this summer that thought that trying to knock me off my bike would be a hoot. But after screaming and photographing, I’ve drawn the line at ruining my day by calling the police and bringing my ride to an end. Until yesterday, when a passenger in a gray sedan thought it would be cute to whip some small object into my chest. I was in a hurry to get somewhere so I put off filing the police report until later, and I don’t have any illusions about what they’ll be able to do, but the Saratoga County Sheriff’s office was very helpful.

And from now on, every single person who harasses me when I’m on my bike will be called in to the local police.