yewt about it: Guy on a bicycle holding a sign.

Before I get to guy on a bicycle (not to be confused with guy on a buffalo from YouTube fame), I realize I'm cranky for the first hour or so I'm awake. In order to get scriptures in and kids dropped off at before school activities on time, we get up at 6:00 every morning. For some people that's no big deal. For me that's a monumental challenge.

Anyway, there's a road used by probably four hundred high school kids and another couple hundred middle schoolers each morning to get to school. Other than right before school and right after, it isn't overused. During those times of day the road is overused. That's about six hundred kids (probably somewhat fewer cars because of car pooling) all going the same place at the same time every day.

The road ends in a T and it's a one lane road. People often move to the far right, outside of the lane, when they come to a stop in order to allow cars wanting to turn left to move forward and not get stuck waiting behind a monster line turning right. It's technically not the way the road is set up. But it's done as a courtesy.

In all the times I've driven that road in the last decade (hundreds, if not thousands - and usually not during the busy times of day), I've seen maybe two bicyclists using the shoulder. That's it.

So today I drove my son to school. Remember, he gets there an hour before school starts - see before school activities referenced above). There was almost no traffic.

As I approached the stop at the T end, I see guy on a bicycle. He's got his bike straddling and blocking the entire shoulder and he's facing as though he's about to cross the street. So I slow down more quickly than usual and divert all my attention his way so I don't hit him if he crosses the street. Already I'm annoyed. Don't just sit there dude. Get where you're going or get well off the road.

Next I notice he has a helmet on that covers his face and a white poster board with a sign saying something like, "This is not a turn lane. Don't use it as one." And he's giving a challenging glare to me and each car that hit the stop right before and right after me.

So I glared back at him and fantasized about knocking him off his bike.

Things that ticked me off:

1. Dude deciding to force my attention on him while I'm driving out of concern for his safety. Not cool. In an easily foreseeable set of circumstances that causes safety problems elsewhere. His tire was right up against the line of the legal lane.

2.The accusing glare when I wasn't planning on entering that space to begin with.

3. Him deciding to moralize about something that would make his life slightly easier for about ten minutes two times a day while slowing down and delaying dozens of other people. The "I'm more important than everyone else" attitude kills me.

4. Less than ten feet over is a patch of paved road that has no through traffic that can easily be used by cyclists who then only have to cross a sidewalk to get to the exact place he's complaining about being blocked from.

I suspect he's planning on staying there for another hour (until school traffic has all seen it). I also give it a fifty fifty that he's going to end up in a fight with someone.

Finally, I realize my morning crankiness is causing me to make way more out of this than it deserves.