Birthday Confrontation

Happy birthday, ya wanna be biker. Well, I guess I am a biker sort of but not the one I wanna be - still working on that, one pedal stroke at a time.

Today was a muggy one, in the 90s, not the most ideal for pedalin' around. But to make the mood more humid, there was a bit of a vehicle / bicyclist encounter. I hope I didn't give cyclist too bad of a name but there were some one fingered salutes (the other guy started it) and some words exchanged. I caught him off guard with the concept that the cyclist has the right to be in the road and be treated like a vehicle. He countered that I could get hit, which is true, but I told him it would be his fault - not entirely true but still... Basically it all comes down (at least in my book) to being, as Dad puts it, "You can be right and you can be dead right." I try to ride smart, keep an eye out for things, don't cut through traffic often, only run red lights after coming to a point when I can stop if I have to and make sure that no one is coming. Some of these things violate NYS laws of riding in the road. This website is a bit more user friendly. Apparently, cyclists Rochester can choose to ride on the sidewalk anywhere except in the Central Business District - I wonder if that applies to the path along the river...

All in all, I live to ride another day. And now back to the Tour...