August 23, 2006

I Keep Meaning to Mention This

Wheelchair_1
There is one peculiar visual feature of my neighborhood that I am struck by (almost literally) when I'm out on my bike all the time, and yet by time I get home, I forget to write about it. Finally, today, I remember! Lucky you.



For reasons some brilliant demographics specialist could probably explain with some complex algorithm, there are several very specific types of people in my neighborhood who I encounter in the bike lane with alarming frequency.



Picture this: you're biking the right way on a one way street, sticking to the bike lane you're supposed to be in, and a shoeless, morbidly obese person in a motorized wheelchair comes blazing, in the wrong direction, heading straight for you. At top speed (whatever top speed is for one of those things). You swerve to get out of their way, sometimes putting yourself in a precarious position vis-a-vis cars, and they don't even give you an appreciative head nod.



Honest to god, there are four or five such people, men and women, in my 'hood, and they play chicken with me in the bike lane all the time. Can someone please help me understand this phenomenon? I am baffled.

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