Driving home from a meeting tonight I saw some shining examples of stupidity that prove that while Kitchener-Waterloo may be one of the most intelligent communities on the planet, that doesn’t mean that certain individuals don’t bring down the curve.
First, to the charming young gentleman clad all in black who chose to dart out less than 5 feet in front of my car at 11:15 pm in a severe rainstorm: You are very lucky that I was paying close attention to the curbs, knew that there was nobody in my blind spot and had the traction to swerve into the other lane to avoid hitting you. Yes I honked at you to make sure you were aware I was there. I think what you meant to convey was “thank you, kind driver for going out of your way not to hit me” but that’s not the message I got when you saluted me with your middle finger.
Second, to the driver who sat on my tail and flashed his (or her – I didn’t take the time to study my rear-view mirror to determine the gender) high-beams at me when I was doing the speed limit in the pouring rain… screw off. You don’t like the speed I chose, there is another lane. Yes I know that people routinely go 10-15 km/h over the speed limit on this stretch of road, but it was late, POURING rain, and the amount of standing water on the road was staggering to say the least. I’ll say this much – blinding me with your high beams is not a good way to make me speed up. I’m more likely to start tapping out four-letter words with my brake lights in Morse Code (I know that 90% or more of the other drivers on the road don’t know what I’m spelling out but it makes me feel better).
Finally, to the special individual who chose to run the red light on a bicycle, again clad all in black, with no headlights – I get that it was raining pretty hard and that biking in the rain sucks, but do you think your actions might have been just a little reckless? Apart from freaking me out completely, what did you hope to accomplish? A free ride to the trauma centre of your choice? Stopping at red lights is one of the things you have to do as a responsible bicyclist. Get over yourself and get a light and a clue.