"Get off the road, butthead!"

[owlectomy]

I'm lucky to live in a place like Carrboro (if I can't live in New York or Chicago or Boston or San Francisco or Toronto or Vancouver--yeah, I'm a city girl at heart)--aside from the to-die-for pastries at Weaver Street Market, it got an award for its bike-friendliness. A substantial portion of the population commutes by bike; there are nice bike lanes, two bike shops in Carrboro and another in Chapel Hill, and overall, people really don't mind if you ride on the road, as long as you're reasonably polite about it. This isn't true in, for example, the suburbs of North Raleigh. (Other advantage: cycling all the time mitigates the damage from the to-die-for pastries).

Problem is, I'm getting healthier. So why not go for a Saturday morning ride, fifteen miles altogether? Answer: because once you get two miles out of town, the shoulders drop off the roads, and the friendly hippie liberals change to rural conservatives driving big trucks. I was coming back, limping wearily along at five miles an hour or so, a couple inches left of the shoulder because there essentially was no shoulder besides a white line painted on the crumbling edge of the highway. An old brown van sails by me, dog inside barking its head off, and I hear from inside, "Get off the road, butthead!"

It didn't really rattle me. After twelve miles, I didn't really have much room for thought beyond "Tired. Hot. Water. Food. Eugh eugh there's sweat in my hair"--and there is, after all, a certain sense of satisfaction that comes with going twelve miles powered by a bottle of Orangina, an energy bar, and one's own too legs.

But though I bear no ill will against 99% of drivers, I don't think I'll be able to help gloating a teeny tiny bit when gas goes up to $4/gallon. Just for that guy. (Yes, I know that it would represent a major blow to all sectors of the economy, causing inflation everywhere, but...let me have my gloating).

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

And I shall gloat with you.

[indigojake.livejournal.com]

Cycling is so much better than driving. Unfortunately, in my little city, there's not all that many "bike lanes" - which is annoying. I usually have to get to the Kiwanis trail if I want to go for a decent ride, which is a way to ride just to get to somewhere where I can ride without having cars racing around me.

And it is a huge benefit to be able to ride when gas is so expensive! ^_^