Right of Way: Wrong in the head

Okay, as today proves, I lead a very interesting and seldom boring life where things happen to me that seem to never happen to anyone else. Today is my latest example.

As most of my friends and those people who read my blogs know, I do a varied amount of exercising to help reduce my blood sugar and lose weight. I usually alternate between walking, jogging and riding my bike. My bike riding has led to several previous posts and to the subject of today's.

I was out for a short ride today (about half an hour for the curious out there) and had just turned onto the second leg of my shorter route. Now Kimberly (St) is not a busy street but has decent amounts of traffic on it from time to time. I had just passed CVS and was going about 20 mph down the right side of the road next to the curb. (Speed limit here is 25 BTW) Suddenly I heard this load honking and before I could even turn to look, a gray Mazda whipped around me at probably twice the limit. A woman yells out the side window something that sounded like "...asshole...sidewalk." and then keeps on going.

Now I encounter my fair share of rude people on the road and promptly forgot all about it until I got to my next turn and there sat the car at the turn with the woman waiting beside it. This is when I knew things were going to get interesting. I was soo right.

She flags me down (Yes I could have just kept going but wheres the fun in that?) and proceeds to harangue me about my riding. This very foul mouthed petite Asian woman tells me that I was riding down the wrong side of the road and blocking traffic because I was going to slow. (Keep in mind that Kimberly is a very wide two lane street with a wide passing median in the middle.) She goes on to say that if I had to ride on the wrong side of the road, I should ride on the sidewalk like I was supposed to and not block traffic. She states that my "blocking traffic and slowing her down" has made her late for work. She then proceeds to say several things in what I believe was Chinese which I doubt were very complimentary and left.

Now folks, I have several major issues with her statements even if they were colorfully delivered. A bicycle is considered a vehicle by the DMV and when on the street, it is to follow the same rules of the road as a car. (Now in my actual neighborhood I switch out as the whim hits me, but on the actual roads and streets I follow this rule precisely.) So since I was on the right hand side of the road, I was not on the "wrong" side.

Secondly, Sidewalks are for pedestrian traffic only IE people using their feet to get to and from places. This is one I seldom fudge on while riding since you can never tell when you are going to turn a corner and find someone right in front of you. So once again, her suggestion that I use the sidewalk was a little confuzzling.

Now ignoring all of that, the fact that this woman was "late for work" and decided to pull over on the side of the road and wait for me just so she could yell at me for making her late to work is a little ludicrous. I have never seen her before so she had no way of knowing for sure that I would turn at that street. I could have just as easily turned around and rode back up the street. This makes me think the very loud lady was either stupid or as my Pawpaw would have said, "Teeched in the head."

Since I am guessing that the woman has a driver's license then she had to have at least glanced at the little handbook they give you that covers the rules of the road for vehicles, bikes and pedestrians. So her screams about me breaking the law and hindering her were more than a little bizarre. I suspect she is the type that ignores "no parking: fire zone" signs because they can't possibly apply to her. Still it made an otherwise boring ride a little more interesting.

Like I said, my life is seldom boring and often times more interesting that many movies. I have yet to decide if this is a blessing or a curse for some previous events in my life. What do you guys think?