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:: Bike Wars ::

People are so helpful sometimes. I went to meet Ben for lunch today. He's giving me an old Visor since mine recently bit the dust, and he's not charging me a thing for it. He is truly a nice fellow.

Today is a beautiful day, in the eighties and not very humid. Perfect biking weather. So I rode my bike to meet him. We ate at an irish pub not far from his office in Ravenswood, and as we parted ways he mentioned in passing that he'd never want to ride a bike in this city.

Sure, I've had problems. Drivers yelling at me to "get on the sidewalk" or telling me "you're gonna get killed!" I like the latter, since it conveys general concern for my safety. I wear a helmet and gloves, and I have a light for when I ride at night. I don't run stop signs (most of the time), and I always ride on the right side of the road. Overall, I'm a pretty courteous rider.

Nonetheless, today I got a death threat from a neaderthal in a car.

"Get the fuck out of the street!"

I turned around, wondering: what?

"Get out of the street! You're not a car!"
Said as if I might not be aware that I am not a car. My love for you is like a truck, but I am not a car.

Now, I was about to turn left, so I was moving from the rightmost lane to the left-turn lane. When this numbskull yelled at me, I was in the middle lane. At a stop light. A red stop light. You know, the kind that says you can't proceed through this intersection. In other words, I wasn't holding anyone up.

I was a little upset. I got off my bike, put it between me and their (there were two large dudes inside) car, and told them what I thought. I thought they should fuck off and just go around.

That didn't seem to please them, so I moved over to the far right side of the street, and as they pulled next to me on their way to the red light (about 5 feet away), this clown needed to jaw some more, calling me a "little boy", telling me things about my mother that my mother wouldn't like, and telling me that if I just moved along, I'd be "saving my own life". That's right, he threatened to kill me if I didn't ride away. Of course, it was an idle threat, but come on. We exchanged some more words, they weren't nice, but I felt like I gave them a piece of my mind they weren't expecting when they told me to move. I had a little bit less of that feeling that I missed a chance to stand up for myself against the bastards, the man, the forces of evil.

This charming pair eventually moved on when the light turned green, and I made no effort to follow them. They may have been idiots, but they were idiots twice my size. I have a friend here who had some people do the same thing to him, only he blasted the driver in the face with his water bottle. That car, a huge SUV, chased him down many streets and alleys, finally clipping him and sending him sailing off his bike. He sprained his hand, but otherwise was unharmed. It makes a great story, but that doesn't mean it was smart (and he knows that). I think we need to stand up for ourselves as cyclists on Chicago streets, but there's only so far I think it should go.

It's days like this that illustrate why some civil disobedience is probably a good thing. I don't know where people get off thinking cars on the only things allowed on the streets. I'm glad there are urban planners out there preaching the truth and doing some about it.

When did riding a bike become such a statement?